Fairy Tail: Elemental Bonds
by Electro DGX
Summary: Natsu Dragneel, Erza Scarlet and Gajeel Redfox are transported to an unknown world through unknown means. There they find and discover people and events they would never expect to exist. They soon learn that their lives are put in danger when a certain group is after their incredible power. They'll make new bonds and end the horror in this story that'll reinvent their lives.
1. Chapter 1: Sudden Appearance

Chapter 1: Sudden Appearance

A human world with no such thing as dragons, wizards or magic, was introduced to it in a very shocking way. Magic in the land of Earth was seen as an abstract concept to humans and to these humans, dragons or wizards didn't exist. Some people, however, were special. They stood outside such boundaries and knew such an abstract and magical world did exist. They could even use magic themselves, but only few were stupid enough to show it. There are three people in particular who are special in such a way. It's possible that they may come from another world, but we have yet to see that. The three all went to the same school, and that school was called _Abstract Magic High School_. The school's principle must've been obsessed with magic, as the school mascot was a wizard and the entire school was surrounded under the abstract idea of magic.

Aside from that, one of the most well-known students was someone named Dayton Surogaki. He was an interesting person, at least with his upbeat personality. He had large, spiky brown hair and vermillion eyes. He typically wore a short-sleeved brown shirt with flames on it, beige pants, and red tennis-shoes. He liked hanging out with people all the time. However, let's not forget he also had rivals too. A lot of people were afraid to fight him because he gained the reputation of _The Lava Dragon Slayer_. In his world, he was the only well-known dragon slayer, in his school. He gained this reputation through creating a large orb of lava and blasting someone into the wall with it, inflicting serious injuries onto his opponent in the process. They named him a Dragon Slayer because, well, he gained scales on his face when he first used the technique. He went through a painful lecture after using it though, and was told not to use his magic so abruptly unless it was _absolutely _necessary. Since then, he held back when it came to using magic in such a way. That is, until someone like him came to his school. That happened to be this very day.

He walked in through the back doors, holding onto one strap of a black back-pack he was wearing to class.

"Ugh, this is gonna suck." He says to himself bored, scratching the back of his neck. School here wasn't so magical when it came to class; just a bunch of stupid paperwork 24/7 and barely any fun until lunch and off-hours came by. What also sucked was that there was barely anyone for him to hang out with during those hours. There _was_ a girl named Roxanne Laurel, whom he liked to mess with, despite her temper and no-bull attitude. You can guess what she did to get payback. There was also someone named Kyousuke Watanabe, but they didn't get along very well. Their relationship was like bullets ricocheting off each other. They both had the same lunch and off-hour, and a couple of the same classes together, which happened to really annoy Dayton. He continued walking through the school with sleepy eyes and a bored attitude, not noticing the commotion ahead of him. There were a bunch of people gathered around something strange, and there was so much commotion that Dayton couldn't help but look up and find out what it was. "Ugh…What's going on?" He says to himself surprised, looking up and noticing the people being pushed away by something.

"OMG, his hair is pink, like, oh my gosh!" One girl says, while other girls begin gossiping over the person.

"Like, what's with his weird vest? He's shirtless underneath."

"What's with those clothes, they are so out of style!" A bunch of girls say. Some of the guys were surprised too.

"Man, what a weirdo." One guy says, angering the pink haired person.

"Who are you calling a weirdo?!" The pink haired guy shouts, getting up in the other guy's face. The guy immediately backed off afterwards.

"Come on' bro, I don't want any trouble!" The guy says defensively, trying to not start a fight. The pink haired guy's attention is then shifted towards Dayton as everyone opens a path to him.

"Who the heck are you?" Dayton says curiously, unintentionally starting commotion among everyone.

"What no way! It's Dayton!" Some people say surprised. The pink haired guy looked at Dayton with striking curiosity as Dayton started walking towards him. He stopped when there was five feet of distance between them, still holding on to his back-pack the same way as before.

"What does it matter? Who are you?" The pink haired guy says curiously. Dayton become irritated and gets ready to fight him right on the spot.

"If you don't answer me, I'll make you answer me!" Dayton says angrily, getting into a fighting pose. The pink haired guy smiles in response, getting ready to fight him too.

"If it's a fight you're looking for, you've got one!" The pink haired guy says happily. He lights his fists on fire as if it was nothing, blowing Dayton's mind.

"What?!" He shouts in shock. He couldn't believe that the pink haired guy could use magic like Dayton. "You can use magic too!" Dayton says shocked. Everyone else was pretty shocked too; the pink haired guy extinguishing the flames in response. Everyone started to gossip over this sudden discovery.

"Ugh, yeah. Is it special or something?" The pink haired guy asks surprised. Dayton widened his eyes upon hearing such a response. He thought he was the only one who could use dragon slayer magic, but what if it's not dragon slayer magic? He suddenly gained confidence.

"Oh yeah?! Well I've got something special for you!" Dayton shouts, inflicting the pink haired guy with wonder. Dayton began to make the lava orb; holding his hand out by the wrist while sending magic energy to his hand. However, something stopped him. A girl with long, green hair grabbed him and slammed him down onto the ground, stopping him from using the technique.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?! You're going to get expelled if you keep using that technique!" The green haired girl shouts angrily, holding Dayton down so that he couldn't get up. Dayton kept struggling to break free, so she painfully twisted his arms to get him to stop.

"Roxanne?!" Dayton shouts upsettingly, trying to break free as all his attempts still fail. "There's an unknown person in this school!" Dayton says painfully, dealing with the pain as Roxanne looks up surprised. She sees the male standing there with confusion as she gets up and releases Dayton, relieving him of the pain.

"Who are you?" Roxanne says defensively, standing up boldly with her bright green eyes that shined in the light. She was ready to fight on the spot if need be. However, it wasn't necessary.

"There's no need to worry." A womanly voice says who happens to be standing behind the pink haired guy. She was wearing silver armor with a blue skirt, and she had incredibly long, scarlet hair. She put her hand on the pink haired guy's shoulder as he looked up to her in surprise.

"Erza?!" He says in surprise. Erza, however, keeps a straight face. She moves her hand from his shoulder as she backhands him in the face painfully, causing the pink-haired guy to stumble backwards a bit.

"Natsu, you fool!" Erza says while grabbing his shoulders. She pulls him towards her and starts shaking him in annoyance. "You're going to start a serious commotion with your brash actions!" Erza says annoyed, Natsu getting dizzy from her shaking.

"They've already started one." Roxanne puts it, glaring at Dayton as he begins to fear her wrath. She turned back to Erza and Natsu and started walking up to the two cautiously, which Erza notices.

"You don't need to worry. We're not here to fight you." Erza says, trying to alleviate her caution.

"Well I am!" Natsu says; jumping around, battle ready as he gets a hit to the head in response. As Natsu rubs his head in pain, Roxanne suddenly stops for a minute, losing herself upon a fixed gaze with Erza.

"What the?" She thinks to herself surprised. For some reason, Erza's presence was intriguing, and she felt elated just by standing next to her. Erza looked at her with confusion while Dayton got up and noticed the two staring at each other. He let out a sigh of boredom in response as Erza continued to stare at Roxanne perplexed. Roxanne immediately snaps out of her daze, shaking her head as she comes back to reality.

"Sorry." She says quickly, pulling her hand down her long, green hair. It was a unique hair style; one that consisted of her hair being straightened with two braids on the sides, ending with black &amp; white tips at the ends of each braid. Her hair was very vibrant, and Erza couldn't help but notice how beautiful it was.

Suddenly, the principle steps in. She was a woman wearing a black business suit with black high heels and a short, brown haircut. It turns out that everyone there watching was gone. The principle had made them go to their classes, so she could talk with the group without any interruptions.

"Ok…" She says with an elegant accent, managing to get everyone's attention. She was not upset at all, surprisingly. "You two," she says, twirling her pen at Natsu and Erza. "You follow Roxanne and Dayton to their class." She glared at Dayton, who gave a smile that begged for forgiveness. She then looked at Erza and Natsu with a cheesy smile. Dayton let out a sigh of relief when she wasn't paying attention to him. "If I remember correctly, there are some others you two might know." She says, pointing at Natsu and Erza again. Both looked at her surprised, wondering who it could be as the principle turned to Dayton and told him to talk to her after school.

"What?! No!" Dayton says reluctantly with the principle just ignoring him and walking back to her office. Roxanne walked over and grabbed Dayton, pulling him up so that they can get to class. Their school had a large hallway, with their class near the end of it. They walked straight down the hallway, looking for the isle that their class was in. There were multiple isles in the school that contained about six to seven classrooms per isle. Roxanne was leading the group with Dayton behind her, Erza and Natsu being next to them both. The two mages were confused about two things; where are they and who are these people? Who was also in the school that they might know?

"I don't think we're the only ones who came here Natsu." Erza says calmly, but shocked. Natsu turned to her in a sense of surprise. Roxanne, however, got confused.

"Wait a minute; I'm confused. It sounds like you came from another world or something like that." Roxanne says perplexed, Erza looking back at her with surprise.

"From another world?" Erza says confused. The group made it to the isle with their class, but they stopped for a moment to discuss the situation.

"It's just strange." Roxanne says, lying against the corner of the isle. She releases a sigh before going on.

"Well…" She says, drawing a blank, "I don't know."

"You two just appeared out of nowhere!" Dayton says with surprise, catching their attentions. "And you," He says, pointing at Natsu, "used fire magic like it was nothing!"

"What's so special about that?" Natsu asks confused, causing Dayton to be even more surprised by his response.

"Well magic here," Roxanne begins, "is a rarity. Seeing people use it is like becoming a god in our point of view." Roxanne explains, completely baffling Erza and Natsu. They became utterly shocked, about to respond until someone had interrupted them.

"Getting a bit carried away, are we?" A womanly voice says. They all turn around to see a beautiful, light-blue eyed woman with dark-blonde hair that when down to her shoulders. She was wearing a white business dress with white business shoes to match.

"Ms. Areca!" Roxanne says with surprise, the teacher smiling in response.

"You don't need to worry, I understand what's going on." She explains calmly, relieving both Dayton and Roxanne. "You two head to class, I want to speak with these two for a moment." Ms. Areca says kindly. Both Dayton and Roxanne head to class, looking back at Erza and Natsu while the teacher begins to talk to the two of them. They stare at Ms. Areca with surprise as she moves a bit closer to them. "This is a bit surprising, isn't it?" Ms. Areca says in an attempt to liven the mood. The attempt failed however as they just stared at her perplexed. Ms. Areca pulled her fingers down through her hair, trying to think of something to say. She knew that they weren't from around here, but the principle's obsession with magic made things a bit awkward. There was already commotion coming from the class that she taught, indicating that there _must _be someone Erza and Natsu know about in there.

"Why don't we get you two into class and we can talk about this later?" Ms. Areca nervously suggests which Erza and Natsu instantly agree to. They both nod their heads at her as she then leads them into the classroom. _This_ is where it all begins.


	2. Chapter 2: The First Time

Chapter 2: The First Time

Dayton and Roxanne stood at the door like statues. Everyone in their entire class was losing it. They were all talking about someone new that was in the classroom. That person was sitting at the opposite wall of the classroom with his head against the wall in a disgusted mood. Roxanne could tell that he hated it; hearing all these people ramble on about the same thing all over again.

"I've never seen anyone with red eyes before!"

"OMG his hair is like, seriously long!"

"He looks creepy."

"Bet no one wants to mess with him."

"Why is he wearing fingerless gloves?" Some people go on about. The male had incredibly long, black, spikey hair with red, snake-like eyes that penetrated you on sight. He was wearing a dark-blue, sleeveless torso with beige pants and dark-red boots to match. The outfit was pretty daunting, having ripped-up sort of edges on the torso of the clothing to give the male a much more intimidating appearance.

"Ugh, what a bunch of morons!" He thinks to himself angrily. He was sitting against the wall in disgust, wanting to punch everyone in the face because they wouldn't shut the hell up. The only one that wasn't irritating him was someone sitting next to the classroom door. He was wearing a black hoodie with blue lightning streaks on it, along with blue cargo jeans and black tennis-shoes to match. This person also had black earbuds, only one of them in his ear. He shot looks of curiosity at the new male from time to time, feeling some sort of relation to his disgust. Ms. Areca made it to the classroom, standing behind Erza and Natsu. The three couldn't see anything past Roxanne and Dayton. Roxanne though, she started to get irritated with how annoying everyone was being, so she decided to do something about it. She started to walk to the teacher's desk across the room as Dayton already knew what she planned to do.

"Oh man! Here she goes!" He says nervously. He knew of the drastic techniques she'd use to get what she wanted, and this was one of them. There was a megaphone on the teacher's desk, and Roxanne grabbed it. The new male looked up and noticed her with the megaphone, wondering what she was going to do with it. She turned it on and up to maximum volume, about to scream into the megaphone just as Dayton plugs his ears.

"EVERYONE! SHUT THE HELL UP!" She screams madly, causing everyone to jump in shock. They all quickly raced to their seats in a frenzy of fear. The amount of chaos that ensued during this short period was enough to drive someone mad. Dayton unplugged his ears in relief, calming down as Ms. Areca walks in. She usually felt paranoid quite often because of Roxanne's ways of getting things straight. Natsu remarked on how Erza would do such a thing, managing to get away with it by saying it quietly. Natsu and Erza managed to get a glance of the inside of the classroom, and they both saw the man sitting next to the wall. Erza became a bit surprised as Natsu gets annoyed by him just being there.

"It's Gajeel!" Erza says surprised, catching Dayton's attention as Natsu starts walking up to Gajeel.

"Gajeel?" Dayton asks surprised, "Who is that?"

"A guild-mate of ours." Erza says calmly. "Not the nicest person but he can be trusted." She explains to Dayton as he narrows his eyes in response. Natsu walks up to the desk that Gajeel is sitting at, slamming his fist on the table.

"Why is it that I'm always stuck with you?!" Natsu shouts angrily. Gajeel turned to Natsu with an annoyed expression on his face.

"Quit your whining! I just ended up here somehow and you're sitting here complaining!" Gajeel says annoyed, angering Natsu even more. Roxanne looks at the two surprised, later turning back to Dayton as he's arguing with the guy in the black hoodie now. She rolls her eyes at the commotion Dayton brings up for no real reason.

"I can imagine the pain, being stuck with _you, _Kyousuke!" Dayton says irritated. Kyousuke looks up with a calm, yet slightly annoyed expression on his face. Surprisingly, this catches Natsu and Gajeel's attention, as they both turn to the two interested.

"That's ironic, especially when it's coming from you." Kyousuke says annoyed, purposely annoying Dayton as everyone watches them argue.

"You're just jealous because I'm a dragon slayer!" Dayton says brashly. Roxanne gets mad, thinking that Dayton shouldn't be spilling out information like that. It surprised both Natsu and Gajeel. Gajeel however, was a bit skeptical.

"What the hell do you think you're doing; saying things like that?!" Roxanne says annoyed. Her comment was ignored though, just as Kyousuke gets up from his desk and stands eye to eye with Dayton.

"Jealous? What a load of crap!" Kyousuke says with disgust, only riling Dayton up as Natsu and Gajeel were just surprised. "The only thing you've got is that stupid reputation of yours, and nothing else. Don't give me that jealousy crap and expect to get away with it." Kyousuke explains coldly. Dayton soon enough got fed up with Kyousuke's "crap".

"Since you're so freakin' confident, why don't we have a showdown tomorrow?!" Dayton yells angrily. Kyousuke gave him a look of curiosity as Roxanne interrupted the two.

"Are you serious?! You don't seriously think you can just…" She says shocked, trying to stop them in a failed attempt.

"A showdown huh? Alright then." Kyousuke says calmly, preparing to leave the classroom. A shocked Roxanne and a surprised Natsu and Gajeel watch as Kyousuke turns around and gives Dayton a menacing glare.

"There's no mercy when you're fighting me." Kyousuke says darkly, Dayton clenching his fists.

"You just better know you're gonna lose!" Dayton says with pride. Kyousuke narrows his eyes in response before heading out of the classroom. He walked right past Erza without saying a word, heading down the aisle and taking a left as Erza stood there in surprise. Erza had a concerning look on her face, wondering about Dayton's relationship with Kyousuke. She headed into the classroom, noticing how Natsu was talking with Dayton about his little feud. Gajeel was lying against the wall, bored, unknowingly having Roxanne's attention as she stared at him for a bit. She wondered about what he might be thinking of until she turned and looked at Erza.

"He's gonna wish he never picked a fight with me!" Dayton says cockily, causing the gossip to spread.

"OMG, they're gonna fight?!"

"Who's gonna win?"

"Dayton is totally gonna beat his ass."

"I'm betting on Kyousuke though. He looks strong to me." people ramble on about. They were already betting on who was going to win. Erza walked up to Roxanne, catching her attention in the process.

"It reminds me of my home." Erza tells her. Roxanne was cleaning up things and re-organizing Ms. Areca's desk as she responded.

"Well, they've never fought against each other before and they're pretty well known throughout the school, so it's no surprise really." Roxanne explains to Erza. Gajeel focused in on their conversation while lying against the wall. He was hearing it all.

"Is this other person strong?" Erza asks curiously. Roxanne took a minute to think about how strong Kyousuke may be, but she came up with nothing.

"To be honest," she says calmly, "I don't know. No one's actually seen him fight before, and there have been some rumors going around that he's dangerous, so I don't know for sure."

"Dangerous?" Erza says surprised, Roxanne nodding in response.

"But with Dayton as an opponent, trying to determine who would win isn't so easy." Roxanne further explains. She turns and looks at Dayton, who's still talking with Natsu about how he's going to beat Kyousuke. He kept throwing his fists in the air as Natsu watched him with gusto. A ton of commotion had risen just from this small feud alone. There was nothing that could stop them from talking about it. Roxanne looked to the clock and noticed that the class period was about to end, looking back down to see everyone packing their bags and proceeding to leave. Ms. Areca came in the classroom after they all left (including Roxanne and Dayton), getting Erza's attention.

"Can you three stay here for a minute?" Ms. Areca asks. Natsu and Erza oblige. However, they soon realize that Gajeel is no longer there.

"What? Where's Gajeel?" Erza says startled, wondering where he went off to. Ms. Areca just stood there surprised, wondering the same thing as Natsu could care less. Erza suddenly dropped the topic. "Oh well, we'll just have to do without him." Erza says to Ms. Areca. She nods and proceeds to explain the details to the two wizards.

After she finished, both Erza and Natsu left the classroom and headed down to the cafeteria, for that's where they'll be staying for the rest of the day. If there was anything that was surprising, it was how no one was not overreacting. Then again, they are human, so it makes sense.

"Aww man. This sucks!" Natsu says to himself, walking with his hands behind his head. He was upset because he didn't want to just sit there in the cafeteria the whole day. He needed some sort of action.

"Oh well, we'll just have to deal with it." Erza says, holding money in the palm of her hand. Ms. Areca had given the both of them cash to buy lunch since they _just appeared. _Erza started to wonder how much the cash was actually worth, for their numerical unit for money were jewels. One dollar was actually 100 jewels. She didn't know however, so she just forgot about it and continued on into the cafeteria with Natsu. "In two hours, they should be here to meet up with us." Erza tells Natsu. They both managed to reach the cafeteria entrance. On the left side of the cafeteria were the lunch ladies and all the food you could buy, while on the right were the tables where you would eat your food and do whatever. There was a bunch of trash everywhere, left over by people too lazy to throw away their own waste. Erza was absolutely disgusted with it.

"Alright food, here we come!" Natsu says cheerfully, running over to stuff himself as Erza just stood there grossed out.

"What improper manners!" She thinks to herself angrily. She starts to use her magic to change into a cleaning dress, but suddenly stops. She remembers that if she used her magic like that, it would draw too much attention. "Why must this happen to me?!" She says shocked, unable to comprehend the trash that was everywhere.

* * *

The day passed by as usual, and while Erza and Natsu were still in the cafeteria, Gajeel was outside. He was laying against the wall of the school, staring at many things that included the large parking lot in the school, the school next to the school he was at, the park, and a sidewalk that led up to an area where gang members would hang. He saw a bunch of gang members that happened to be walking through, smoking cigarettes and acting like "bad boys".

"What do ya wanna do now bro?"

"What the freak do I know?! Shut up and we'll find somethin to do." One of the guys says. He was a tall and slightly muscular man, with an ugly brown spiked haircut and extremely pale skin. He was extremely weak though, not to mention stupid. He also wore a bunch of gold chains because "it was cool" and he was the cockiest person ever.

"What a bunch of idiots." Gajeel says to himself, staring at the group with a disgusted expression. The tall guy turns and notices Gajeel staring at them. Being the cocky dumbass that he was, he started to walk up to Gajeel to fight him.

"This dude says he wants to fight us." The cocky person says, just as his friends start ranting on with him. He starts walking up to Gajeel like he was some badass, when it was just the opposite. Gajeel gained a perverse grin on his face, ready to take them on right then and there. However, it suddenly changed when someone familiar decided to return.

"Oh, it's you dumbasses again." Someone says darkly. Gajeel looked past the idiots to realize it was none other than Kyousuke. He was initially surprised, watching as all the dumb people turn around to see Kyousuke. The cocky guy suddenly gets angry and tries to get all up in Kyousuke's face.

"You again?!" The cocky one says brashly, being angry at him for something he did in the past, "You think you're better than me or something?"

"I know that I'm better than you; you're too stupid to even know what magic is." Kyousuke points out. The other two started to laugh, only to stop so they didn't make the cocky guy angry. Kyousuke began walking past them and on to his own life.

"Yeah, whatever. I don't need that magic crap to beat you." The cocky one says with a cocky attitude. His pals start ranting on with him, and Kyousuke suddenly halts upon hearing this. The cocky one gains a smile on his face, ready to take Kyousuke out with pride. Kyousuke turns around and gives them a menacing glare, scaring them, except for the cocky one. Kyousuke gained a smirk on his face.

"Really?" he says darkly, "Then let's see it!" With that he attacks the group, approaching the group rather quickly as they all try to hit him. They try, but they fail. Kyousuke punches one of them in the stomach, causing him to fall. The other guy tries to use that to his advantage, but his attack is blocked and Kyousuke elbows him in the stomach. He starts stumbling back in pain, holding onto his stomach as Kyousuke punches him in the face. The impact was so powerful, it made the guy actually hit his face on the sidewalk, scraping the ground and leaving a small streak of blood. The cocky guy began to fear Kyousuke, not realizing how battle thirsty Kyousuke was. Gajeel was watching them with excitement, though it was tough to tell. The thirst for battle in him started to boil. He grinned at the sight of the gang's pathetic defeat and Kyousuke's violent victory. Kyousuke approached the cocky guy with a daunting expression on his face, just as the guy started to back away in fear. "Guess what," Kyousuke says dauntingly, "I didn't even have to use magic."

"C'mon man, I don't want any trouble now…" The cocky guy pleaded, "Just let me be and I won't mess with ya anymore."

"Last time you said that and now look where we are." Kyousuke says darkly, looking down at the ground so that the cocky male couldn't see his eyes. The cocky male continued to back away, about to run off until Kyousuke grabbed his shirt and pulled him up to his face. He stared right into the male's eyes, getting a taste of Kyousuke's darkness. Kyousuke's eyes shined a bright electric-blue with piercing, snake-like pupils.

"Next time, don't be a bunch of dumbasses like you always are and maybe it won't happen again!" Kyousuke yells into the guy's face. He was shaking, more so at the sight of Kyousuke's eyes.

"What the...what the hell's up with your eyes man?" The male says shocked. That response caught Gajeel's attention, losing his grin in the process. More or so, he stared at Kyousuke as he dropped the guy. The guy hit the ground hard, and he scrambled to his feet like a cat scarred for life. He got up and ran away, Kyousuke staring him down the whole time. He eventually was gone, and all who was left were those two other guys that Kyousuke beat up. Gajeel kept his eyes on Kyousuke, who in turn, turned around and saw Gajeel. They both made eye contact as some sudden, strange emotion was inflicted into the two while they just stood there, staring at each other without a word. Kyousuke eventually looked away and took off, putting in a pair of earbuds and turning up the volume to put himself at ease. Gajeel continued to stare at him as he walked off, obviously because he was curious.

"Well, he's not a moron like the rest." Gajeel says surprised. "This is gonna be fun." He thinks to himself, remembering that a certain, special fight was taking place tomorrow. He wanted to smile, but he didn't. He then decided to leave and head for the school cafeteria. Before he started to head back though, he suddenly heard the bell ring, watching as a bunch of people were heading home. It turns out that school was over for the day. He decided to stay put and watch the annoying people leave the school. It wasn't long until he spotted Erza and Roxanne together, along with Dayton and Natsu who were behind the two. They were heading for their homes, for Erza was going to stay with Roxanne and Natsu was going to stay with Dayton. They didn't seem to mind, however. It was a wild day already, and it wasn't over. The next day was going to be on another level of "wild".


	3. Chapter 3: The Fight

**A/N: At this point the main three OCs of this story have been introduced. Dayton, Roxanne, and Kyousuke are on a poll on my profile page. If you would be so kind as to vote for your favorite, I would be happy. Anyways, enjoy the chapter and have a nice day :)**

Chapter 3: The Fight

Today was the day that_ it_ was happening. Everyone was so anticipated for the fight that nothing was going to be stopping them at this rate. Dayton especially was quite pumped himself, believing that he would come out victorious. The fight was going to take place in the hallway during second hour, and that's when everyone is going to be watching. Neither Dayton nor Kyousuke were chickening out; they had something to prove to the other. After first hour, the gossip of the fight, everyone had gathered around the center of the school where the fight would be. Dayton was walking with Natsu to the fight while Erza and Roxanne were following right behind them, both talking to each other about it. Erza couldn't help but feel how it was just like when Erza and Natsu had their duals.

"It's just like Fairy Tail." Erza says to herself nostalgically, catching Roxanne's attention.

"Fairy Tail?" Roxanne asks perplexed as Erza goes off to explain.

"A guild that Natsu and I are members of." She explains, surprising Roxanne.

"A guild?!" Roxanne says surprised, "You go to a guild?"

"Of course. Is that surprising to you?" Erza asks startled. Roxanne raises an eyebrow in response.

"The last time I heard about guilds was in my World History class." Roxanne says bluntly. Erza becomes filled with bewilderment and question. Was their world hundreds of years into the future?

"You can't be serious!" Erza says with shock. The group eventually catches up to the group, just as Dayton is about to go in.

"Well then again, this is the year of X895."

"X895?! That's nearly 100 years past our time back in X791!" Erza says with shock. Roxanne looked at her completely baffled, thinking that she would be over one-hundred years old in this time period.

"Well you did say you were possibly from another world. If that's the case, the only assumption I can make is that the time-axis in our world is much different than yours." Roxanne explains, putting the conversation at rest.

"I see…" Erza says calmly, still surprised that such a phenomenon happened in the first place. After their long conversation, they both look up to see Dayton heading in, ready to fight Kyousuke who was already there waiting. He watched as Dayton fist bumped with Natsu enthusiastically.

"You better be watching me!" Dayton says cheerfully, Natsu already pumped for the fight.

"You bet I will!" Natsu says, as they both leave each other's fists and Dayton heads into the ring. Erza and Roxanne walk up to Natsu, who is watching it with excitement.

"This is totally awesome!" Natsu says cheerfully, throwing his fists up in the air as Erza closes her eyes and smiles.

"This will be interesting." She says calmly. Roxanne looked up at her with curiosity. She didn't think Erza would be interested in seeing another's skill in combat, but knowing that she did made her feel more relatable. Roxanne looked to the ring to see Kyousuke standing there, one hand in his pocket and the other hanging from his side. She looked even farther ahead and could even see Gajeel, who was lying against the wall and watching the fight from a distance. He too was anticipated for this, for it was him that saw Kyousuke beat up the three idiotic wannabes. He still had that same serious expression on his face however, along with his arms crossed.

Enough with that, the two fighters glared at each other. They were waiting for someone to make the first move, but instead they started off with some small talk before the action took place.

"You think you can beat me?" Dayton asks, to which Kyousuke slightly tilts his head in response.

"Don't get cocky now," Kyousuke says calmly, "we haven't even started."

"Oh yeah?! Then let's get started!" Dayton says angrily, kicking the fight off as everyone started chanting. While Dayton was brash at points, he wasn't one to charge in without a good strategy. He attempted a downward punch to Kyousuke's face, but Kyousuke simply tilted to his left to avoid the attack. Dayton used this to his advantage in an attempt to sweep Kyousuke off his feet. Kyousuke was faster though, and he managed to stop Dayton dead in his tracks with a kick of his own, right into Dayton's shin. Dayton looked at him with surprise, before attempting to hit Kyousuke again. He quickly spun around and pushed himself off the ground, tilting in the air to his feet once more. Erza remarked his agility, but she hadn't seen much just yet. Kyousuke just stood there, waiting for an attack as if he could destroy Dayton whenever he chose. Dayton ran up and threw a series of punches that were either blocked or dodged by Kyousuke, only to cause Dayton much frustration as Natsu watched him in confusion.

"_Why can't I hit him?! He seems so much faster than I thought!"_ He thinks to himself agitated. At this point he started to focus. He attacks at high speed, throwing up to two-three punches per second as it forces Kyousuke to take a course of action. Kyousuke evaded his attacks by ducking, using the opportunity to kick Dayton in the stomach. Dayton was sent skyward, just as Kyousuke jumped up after him for some "juggling". Dayton, in mid-air, attempted a sweep kick to the stomach, but Kyousuke simply stopped the kick and punched Dayton in the face. As Dayton was knocked back by the pain he managed to use his feet to grab Kyousuke, attempting to flip himself over so that he could slam Kyousuke down onto the ground. This was a failed attempted, however, as Kyousuke kicked Dayton in the back painfully. It forced him to let go of Kyousuke as they both fell back down to the ground. People were cheering them on by either shouting and jumping like Natsu, or watching silently like Erza, Gajeel and Roxanne. They were surprised by what already took place in the battle. As the two fighters landed, they both went straight for each other fist first, colliding head on as they then went to kick each other. Kyousuke managed to barely dodge it with only the surface of Dayton's shoe touching his throat and Dayton getting slightly pushed back by Kyousuke's kick. In that very short amount of time, Dayton had grabbed his leg in mid-air, attempting to flip him over and land a direct hit.

"I got ya!" Dayton says with a grin on his face. Kyousuke looked at him in surprise to see that he got his leg. Gajeel, Erza and Roxanne looked up surprised, wondering what was going to happen next. This was when Kyousuke did something shocking.

"You sure about that?" Kyousuke says calmly, catching Dayton's attention and confusing him in the process. Kyousuke suddenly starts turning, spinning around and kicking Dayton right in the face. The impact of the kick was strong enough to make Dayton let go of Kyousuke's leg and cause him to stumble backwards painfully. Everyone shouted with excitement after seeing such an epic trick. Who would've thought Kyousuke would be just as agile, or even more so. Erza and Roxanne gained a surprised expression while Gajeel just grinned. He somehow knew that Kyousuke wouldn't be an easy opponent. Dayton was a really good fighter, so everyone else didn't expect Kyousuke to hold up against Dayton so well.

"_What the hell?!"_ Dayton thinks to himself, feeling the bruise on his face from the kick. He looked up and saw Kyousuke just standing there, waiting for him to attack once more. _"Since when did he get this strong?!"_ Dayton thinks to himself again. He started to realize that winning would be much more difficult than he had expected. There were slight bruises on Kyousuke, but they were nothing. Dayton however, having been hit by Kyousuke, had a large bruise on his face next to his eye, it slightly bleeding. It wasn't enough to stop Dayton though.

"Is this it?" Kyousuke taunts, seeing Dayton get up and charge towards him.

"Not even close!" He shouts with confidence. He wanted to punch Kyousuke in the face, but his attempt was immediately foiled as Kyousuke had anticipated it from the start. However, Dayton quickly shifts gears, suddenly getting down low and attempting a sweep kick instead. A surprised Gajeel watched as Kyousuke flew off his feet helplessly; Dayton smiling himself. Natsu got really excited, clenching his fists as he watched Dayton start to gain the upper hand. Natsu kept cheering him on as Erza and Roxanne were too engaged to really do anything. Gajeel was slightly impressed, though he was still calmly lying against the wall. Kyousuke's eyes shot for Dayton as shock invaded him.

"_He caught me off guard!" _He thinks to himself surprised. Dayton then attempts to take him down, but misses as Kyousuke manages to maneuver around in the air, just enough to barely miss it. Dayton's fist brushed the surface of Kyousuke's black coat as Kyousuke landed on his hand.

"_Dammit!"_ Dayton thinks to himself angrily, turning around to find Kyousuke spinning himself around while doing a handstand. Kyousuke spun around and kicked downward, managing to hit Dayton in the chest. He stumbles back in surprise as Kyousuke lands on his feet once more, preparing to land a direct hit right on the spot. Dayton managed to block the punch with his arm and push it away, trying to regain his balance in the process. Dayton still couldn't understand how Kyousuke was this good.

"_I have to HIT HIM!"_ Dayton thinks to himself angrily, becoming impatient with his lack of progress. The situation suddenly changes. Dayton's hands start to glow a fiery red color, catching Kyousuke's attention as he's the first to realize what he's doing.

"_Dammit!"_ Kyousuke thinks to himself, backing away with caution. Everyone eventually sees the magic, along with the scales forming on his hands. Only five of those people felt complete shock, one of which was none other than Natsu himself. Erza and Gajeel also watched in shock.

"What type of magic is that?!" Erza asks surprised, seeing Dayton's hands becoming immersed in lava.

"That's his dragon slayer magic." Roxanne explains calmly. Erza and Natsu couldn't believe their ears. There was a dragon slayer in another world?

"He's a dragon slayer too?!" Erza says with surprise, only to make things more confusing.

"Wait! What do you mean by _too?_" Roxanne asks confused. Erza calms down as she tries to explain amidst the volume of everyone else.

"Natsu's also a dragon slayer, but he's a Fire Dragon Slayer." Erza explains. Roxanne turned to Natsu in wonder, watching as the exuberant dragon slayer was cheering for Dayton. Gajeel became curious, wondering what kind of power Dayton had and what Kyousuke would do about it. Dayton had finally revealed his Dragon Slayer magic, so what was his next move? He puts his hands on top of one another, preparing to make the orb he tried to use on Natsu the day before.

"I'm not gonna lose to you!" Dayton says confidently. Fear took over the crowd as Dayton forged his infamous Lava Orb, having a big smile on his face. Kyousuke just narrowed his eyes in curiosity. Gajeel watched, just as curious.

"What the hell is that?" Gajeel says to himself. He watched as the orb eventually transformed into a large ball of lava, which Dayton would recklessly use against Kyousuke. Roxanne gritted her teeth in frustration.

"Ugh! What an idiot!" Roxanne says to herself angrily. She knew that Dayton would get in serious trouble for using it again; possibly getting himself suspended or even expelled from the school. Everyone kept screaming for something to happen, so it was out of their control. Natsu suddenly became curious himself, wondering just how powerful that orb really was. Before anyone could do anything, Dayton charged at Kyousuke with the Lava Orb in his palm. It started glowing a bright orange as it became really bright. A lot of people covered their eyes as Dayton aimed for Kyousuke's stomach, screaming in a way that Natsu would. However, the attack was a complete, utter failure. Kyousuke managed to grab his wrist before Dayton could touch him. The orb just exploded as Dayton lost control over the orb. Pieces of ash began to fall to the ground as the orb dissipated. Everything fell silent as everyone turned to see what happened. Everyone gasped in complete shock, even Roxanne. She didn't understand how it happened.

"How is he able to touch Dayton with those scales?!" Roxanne says startled, catching Erza and Natsu's attention as they look to her in surprise.

"What do you mean?" Erza asks calmly.

"Being a Lava Dragon slayer, his skin heats up to the temperature of lava when he uses his magic. Because of that, how can Kyousuke hold onto his wrist without burning himself?" Roxanne explains surprised. Erza turned around and saw that steam was emitting from Dayton's skin, as the lava scales had covered nearly his entire body, except for his face. She also began to wonder the same thing. Gajeel however, already knew the answer.

"So that's it." Gajeel says to himself calmly, paying close attention to Kyousuke's hand. Dayton stared at Kyousuke with complete and utter shock. One of his most prized attacks had failed.

"WHAT?!" Dayton says overwhelmed, "But how?!"

"Why don't you look for yourself?" Kyousuke says calmly. Dayton instantly looks down to see that there is blue electricity emitting from his palm. It was acting as a force field for Kyousuke's hand so that he wouldn't burn himself. Completely shocked, Dayton looked up into Kyousuke's eyes. Right upon seeing his snake-like pupils, instantly figured it out.

"It can't be…" Dayton says shocked, "You're a Dragon Slayer too?!"

"Don't feel so powerful now, do you?" Kyousuke taunts. This shocking revelation sent everyone into complete silence. Gajeel's eyes widened as they were locked on Kyousuke. He wondered how he couldn't sense it from the start. Somehow, none of the wizards were able to sense each other's magical energy. Had they been able to, they would've picked up on it from the start. The bigger question was "How are they Dragon Slayers?" Roxanne stared at Kyousuke in shock.

"Kyousuke's also a dragon slayer." She says. She felt some sort of disbelief inside; unable to believe it until something proved it was a reality. Kyousuke held his hand out and started to forge his own Dragon Orb. Blue electricity circulated around the palm of his hand into that of an orb, and it increased in size as Dayton stared at it helplessly. He tried to break free, but Kyousuke was locked onto his wrist. There was no escape for him. Natsu and Erza stared at Kyousuke in shock, realizing he wasn't messing around and that he was going to use the Electric Orb on Dayton at point-blank range. Gajeel was still curious, being more interested in Kyousuke as a Dragon Slayer. Kyousuke finally finished forging the blue, electric orb as Dayton started to freak out.

"You can't be serious?!" Dayton panics, only receiving a glare in response.

"Does it look like I'm fooling around?" Kyousuke says aggravated. He takes the orb and thrusts it into Dayton's stomach without hesitation. Dayton screams in pain as the orb takes its toll on him while his skin reverts back to normal. Within about three seconds of the orb's impact, Dayton is blasted back by the orb with extreme force; flying back a few feet before painfully landing and sliding across the floor. The orb had managed to burn through his shirt, leaving a massive scorch mark on his stomach as a result. Everyone gasped in shock as Dayton lied there defeated; his eyes widened in disbelief. He lost against Kyousuke, yet he was the great "Lava Dragon Slayer". "Unbelievable." Kyousuke says to himself upsettingly, having wanted more of a challenge. He started to walk away from the group as the fight had just ended. Natsu looked up at Kyousuke, wondering just how powerful he really was. Gajeel was also curious. He was very interested in finding out more about Kyousuke, staring at Kyousuke while he left the match. Roxanne ran up to Dayton to get him up off the ground as Erza helped her out.

"Damn, what an idiot." Roxanne says irritated.

"At least he wasn't seriously injured." Erza reassures. They both pick him up and take him to the nurse's office. Natsu, concerned with Dayton's well-being, left with the two to make sure that he was alright. The crowd started to leave and do their usual thing, as Gajeel just waited until everyone left. He was most certainly curious. At this point there was nothing stopping him from finding out more about _Kyousuke Watanabe_.


	4. Chapter 4: A Third Bond

Chapter 4: A Third Bond

After the events of the fight, everything had started to return back to normal. Of course there was still gossip going on, but it wasn't as chaotic as it was just a normal school again. It was fourth hour, which was Dayton's lunch hour. He was sitting at one of the lunch tables in the cafeteria, having had his stomach bandaged up from the hit. While drinking a red energy drink, he look shoots a few looks from time to time at Kyousuke, who was at the table diagonally to his on the other side of the room. He was just sitting there, having already eaten his lunch as he was listening to music. Dayton kept staring at him, filled with the disbelief that he faced during their match. Roxanne was sitting on the table right next to him with Erza sitting next to her. Natsu was sitting on the other side of the table, facing Dayton. Roxanne and Natsu ate their lunches while Erza simply drank a cup of coffee that she had bought from a nearby coffee shop. Natsu was eating so much food; it was going to cost him a LOT. You would wonder how he managed to say slim 24/7 with the amount of food he ate. Fortunately, the school had let it slide since they _thought_ that they wouldn't be staying there for long. Dayton had a disappointed expression on his face as he turned back to his lunch and sighed.

"I can't believe I lost to him." Dayton says upsettingly, catching Natsu's attention.

"Yeah you lost this time, so what?" Natsu says, still chowing down the food, "I know you'll win next time."

"I know that's for sure." Dayton says calmly. However, he wasn't too sure. Perhaps there was more to Kyousuke than meets the eye. However, the only ones who got this idea were Roxanne and Gajeel, the latter happening to be lying against one of the windows in the cafeteria. No one noticed him as he stared at Kyousuke the whole time. He was particularly interested in Kyousuke of all people, notching how people avoided him like he was some sort of virus. Kyousuke just kept glaring at people, getting annoyed as everyone kept giving him strange looks.

"_I know that feeling all too well."_ Gajeel thinks to himself calmly. He starts to head for his table, for he became too interested to just watch. As he's walking there, Erza, Natsu, Roxanne and Dayton notice him.

"Gajeel!" Erza says startled, as he continues on regardless. Natsu looked up curiously, watching him as he walked up to the table. All four of them had their eyes locked as he took his seat on the table; Kyousuke not having noticed. It isn't until Gajeel puts his arms on the table that Kyousuke looks up to see that it's him. He becomes startled and is filled with surprise.

"Hey." Kyousuke says calmly. He remembered Gajeel from outside the last time, being personally surprised that they would soon meet. Kyousuke didn't know what to say to him as Gajeel just stared at him. The other four watched intrigued, making things more difficult as he didn't understand what was going on.

"So…" Gajeel says calmly, "You're a Dragon Slayer huh?"

"Yeah." Kyousuke says in response. Gajeel could see his dragon-like fangs when he talked. "Are you gonna avoid me for it?" Kyousuke asks defensively, annoying Gajeel somewhat.

"Don't be stupid." Gajeel says straightforwardly. It was obvious that he wasn't afraid him, and Kyousuke was a bit surprised. "They're just a bunch of morons." Gajeel says with contempt, annoying Dayton and Natsu somewhat. Kyousuke was a bit surprised to hear him say that. Only Kyousuke himself would say something like that, so hearing Gajeel say that made him feel more relatable. He calmed down and became less defensive.

"I'm glad you see it my way." Kyousuke says calmly. Gajeel looked around for a bit before responding once more. He noticed all the gossip that was going on and already began to feel annoyed.

"You have to deal with this every day?" Gajeel asks, looking around as everyone irritated him.

"Five days a week. Sometimes it really drives you mad." Kyousuke says calmly.

"Bet you've got some haters." Gajeel says seriously, as Kyousuke nods in agreement.

"Well, haters gonna hate." Kyousuke says jokingly. This was actually kind of funny, as Gajeel chuckled a bit. Erza and Natsu widened their eyes as Gajeel usually never smiles, unless he's beating up people he doesn't like or when he's in a good battle. Nevertheless, they still watched him in a way that they wouldn't look like they were eavesdropping. Erza couldn't believe her eyes.

"That's certainly a surprise. They're very much alike." Erza assumes, as they all agree with her. They were very alike, but they weren't parallel versions of each other.

"Let's just hope Erza isn't like Roxanne." Dayton says brashly. He made a stupid move as he got punched in the face by an offended Roxanne. Dayton covered his face in pain as Roxanne crossed her arms angrily.

"Let's just hope you learn when to shut your mouth." Roxanne says offended.

"Well said." Erza says calmly. She was still drinking her coffee that she had bought earlier. As Dayton and Roxanne argued, Gajeel and Kyousuke still had a pleasant conversation with each other; it taking a turn for the better.

"You know, you're just like me." Gajeel says in a nice tone, to which Kyousuke jumps up surprised, one of his earbuds falling out of his ear.

"Seriously?" Kyousuke asks surprised. Though surprised, he started to see it too; noticing their similarities rather quickly. Natsu looked at Gajeel like a maniac while Dayton was still arguing with Roxanne; the two not noticing. Erza was so surprised, she almost dropped her coffee.

"What do you mean seriously; just look at yourself. There's something about you that reminds me of myself." Gajeel says, surprising Kyousuke. He looked at Gajeel with a surprised expression on his face.

"That's an interesting comparison your making." Kyousuke says calmly. Underneath his calm exterior was a pot of emotions, stirring with every passing second. Kyousuke put one of his earbuds back in his ear, just as Gajeel noticed them himself.

"Are those some kind of headphones or something?" Gajeel asks curiously. Kyousuke looked at the earbud before turning his attention back to Gajeel and answering the question.

"Well, they're called earbuds. I use them all the time for music." Kyousuke explains calmly. Gajeel was surprised that Kyousuke even had a knack for music. Kyousuke, for one of the first times ever, actually felt some sort of connection. This was when the other four lost interest and had gotten up. They started to head outside as Dayton begs to Roxanne for forgiveness as she continues to ignore him, only becoming irritated by his persistence.

"Will you shut the hell up?!" She yells at him angrily, as he continues to beg. They eventually left the cafeteria while the other two, Kyousuke and Gajeel, stayed in the cafeteria. Kyousuke continued their conversation.

"So, I heard you came from another world or something."

"Yeah. Somehow we all ended up in this crazy place. I ain't got a clue how though." Gajeel responds. Kyousuke looked at him with a perplexed expression. The idea of a bunch of wizards randomly having appeared in their world was strange. Not weird, just strange. Kyousuke was going to ask him more about it when something else caught his attention. Some girl was walking with her friends as they talked about something unusual.

"Did you hear?" She says in a high pitched, girly voice, "Those idiotic weirdoes have a girlfriend!"

"What?! Are you serious?! That's so lame!"

"She's such an idiot for choosing them. I mean, why in the world would anyone wanna date some disgusting thing like him?" They chatter on about. Kyousuke suddenly felt concerned; the feeling shooting through him like an arrow. Gajeel also became curious himself, but it didn't necessarily bother him.

"_A girlfriend? Those idiots couldn't possibly want that_." Kyousuke thinks to himself concerned. He knew something was going on, so he got up and prepared to leave as Gajeel watched him.

"I'll be back in a minute." Kyousuke explains as he starts to walk off.

"You're really gonna go after them?" Gajeel asks surprised. Kyousuke halted for a minute, turning around and looking back at him with a calm expression on his face.

"It may sound ridiculous, but these idiots are just rich-kids. So stupid and spoiled to the core; they could even get dangerous weaponry at their disposal." Kyousuke finalizes, walking off and heading after them. Gajeel sat at the table with multiple thoughts running through his head. He didn't care about those idiots, but he started to feel like Kyousuke might be on to something.

Kyousuke walked down a small set of stairs that led to a hallway. It split off in two directions; one that led to the gym and one that led outside. He headed for the one that led outside, quickly stopping as he suddenly found out where they were. It was the super cocky one, and he surprisingly was with a beautiful, blue-haired girl. She was wearing an orange dress and a unique, blue hairstyle that complimented her outfit. Kyousuke knew the cocky-idiot was onto something; he would've never gotten a girl as beautiful as her. Kyousuke walked outside and managed to sneak up onto them, getting close enough to overhear their conversation.

"You like books huh?" The cocky one asks, as the blue-haired girl is walking with a pleasant smile on her face.

"I love to read." She says calmly. She had that smart-girl vibe floating about, which Kyousuke quickly picked up on. Kyousuke assumed the girl must've been lost or something, as no one in the school would hang out with this cocky idiot. There were actually many things that didn't make sense at this point, but Kyousuke watched them regardless. The two walked around the school, past the tennis court and into a small patch of grass in-front of the bus drop-off lanes. The school was blocking the sun from that area, so there was a lot of shade. The cocky one just stopped in his tracks without warning. The blue-haired girl was starting to feel slightly uncomfortable around him as she wondered why he just stopped. More importantly, she wondered where he was taking her.

"So where are you taking me?" The blue-haired girl asks politely. The cocky one didn't respond, instead putting on a cheesy smirk. The blue-haired girl looked at him in question before something strange happened. He took out a silver ball and slammed it on the ground in-front of her. She stumbled back a bit and tried to guard herself from the smoke. However, the cocky one took advantage of this as a large white substance grabs her and slams her against a tree, binding her to it in the process. The cocky one laughed in delight while the blue-haired girl tried to break free.

"I'm gonna take you to a special place called hell my little girl." The cocky one said cockily, trying to look menacing. Kyousuke wanted to barf after hearing that last part. The blue-haired girl happened to be a wizard, attempting to use a spell to break free.

"Solid-Script Fire!" She shouts determined. However, nothing happened. She widened her eyes in horror, wondering what was happening.

"What?! Why is my magic not working?!" She asks herself shocked, the cocky guy smiling as she struggles. The cocky guy, having it all go according to plan, walks up and painfully rips her out of the goo. This somehow rendered her weaker than normal, so she couldn't break free from his grasp. He held her with his arm, holding her mouth shut as he prepared to leave with her.

"Now you're my precious little girl." The cocky one says with pleasure. He prepares to leave before being stopped by another person in the vicinity.

"Calling her 'little girl' doesn't make you sound menacing; it makes me want to barf." Kyousuke says as he appeared behind the two. He was standing there with an annoyed expression as the girl shot him a surprised look. The cocky guy gets angry, but this time he has a trick up his sleeve.

"It's game over for you bro!" The cocky one says angrily, pulling out a white ball and throwing it at Kyousuke. Kyousuke didn't try to stop it as it hit him and the world around them was suddenly warped into that of a destroyed city. The ground they were standing on was the rubble of the school's destruction, the sky was a blood red, and the buildings were on fire. The girl looked around in horror, freaking out in the process.

"What did you do?!" She yells at the cocky one, who's still restraining her. He was about to hit her just as Kyousuke stopped him, sending a spark of electricity flying past his ear.

"Don't worry; it's just some stupid illusion." Kyousuke says, quickly appearing in-front of the cocky one as he jumps in surprise. Kyousuke's speed was quite impressive. "He just threw a white orb that causes illusions on the target. If you know how it works, it's pretty much useless." Kyousuke explains to the girl. She began to calm down as she wondered how that was possible, but she soon was forced to endure more pain, still being severely weakened from the substance.

"Come any closer and she's done!" The cocky one warns, threatening to choke her to death if necessary. However, Kyousuke was one step ahead, suddenly appearing in-front of the cocky guy as he held a blade to his neck. It happened to be a chokuto with a silver blade and a blue handle. The blade was slightly tinted blue, and the handle had a blue lightning graphic on it. Kyousuke wasn't afraid of cutting him to pieces and eliminating him from existence. The girl looked up to see Kyousuke's blue, snake-like eyes that were reminiscent of Gajeel's. She began to hope that Gajeel appeared soon, as she knew him and they were actually good friends. As for the cocky one, he was sweating in fear, being the weakling that he was. Kyousuke was about to slice his throat, before going with another plan of action.

"So you actually managed to render her abilities useless; just with that orb?" Kyousuke asks cleverly. The girl suddenly remembered when the cocky guy threw the orb, and recognized that the orb was in-fact what made her unable to use her spells.

"Yeah, and it worked well too!" The cocky guy says in a corny way. Just as the cocky guy went on about how great of a plan it was, Kyousuke shot a spark of electricity into the girl, releasing her from the spell that was casted from the silver orb. Kyousuke then gained a grin on his face, confusing the latter two.

"Too bad that the technique you used is pointless now." Kyousuke taunts, annoying the cocky one, "You couldn't fool me with that spell."

"Huh?" The cocky one asks; having been completely oblivious to everything he said. The girl then catches on to Kyousuke's plan and starts trying to escape. Her strength returns to her and she manages to break free from the cocky guy' grip. Just as she quickly turns around in an attempt to stop him, he pulls out another white orb and throws it at the girl. She quickly counteracts with Solid Script: Fire. Suddenly, a large word that spells fire appears, appearing to be made of flames as it flies towards the orb, completely burning it to ash and rendering it useless.

"Ugh man! Even a stupid girl is beating me. Well guess what?!" The cocky one says angrily. This time he pulled out a red ball. It was twice the size of the other orbs and it was glowing. The girl wondered what it was while Kyousuke on the other hand widened his eyes at the sight of it.

"How the hell…" Kyousuke says in complete shock, "Where did you get that?!"

"I'm so rich, I can buy whatever I want!" The cocky one says with pride. Remember when Kyousuke called him a rich-kid? The cocky guy prepared to use the orb but was instantly stopped as Kyousuke blasted through him within seconds. Taking the ball from him, Kyousuke slices through the cocky guy's body as the latter is paralyzed with shock. The cut went across his chest and slightly through his neck. He started to bleed excessive amounts of blood as his body was nearly cut in half. He fell to the ground as he began to die. The red ball must've been so powerful that Kyousuke had no other choice but to slash through him like that. The girl was watching in complete shock over Kyousuke's actions.

"You killed him!" She says in shock. Kyousuke stood frozen as she began to fear him like she did Gajeel at one point.

"That wasn't my intention," Kyousuke says with a serious tone, "but I had to or an entire three mile radius of the real world would've been erased from existence."

"How is that even possible?" The girl asks surprised. Kyousuke couldn't even figure out how himself.

"To be honest, I don't know." Kyousuke says. He held his sword up in the air, using his hand as a support for the handle. The girl watched in astonishment as the sword faded into blue particles that began to drift in the air around them. Now since the cocky guy was dead, the world around them reverted back to its previous state. The girl looked around in shock, seeing her imprint on the tree that she was stuck to. Her strength had completely returned and she could use her magic just like before. As she looked around in shock, Kyousuke slightly turned his head towards her, to which she looked up and noticed.

"So you're another wizard then, am I right? " Kyousuke asks calmly, to which she nods her head in agreement. "This world isn't the same as yours. It's a lot more dangerous and it's easier to unexpectedly fall into traps other people set for wizards." Kyousuke explains. The girl gave Kyousuke a shocked look. However, something else deemed more important. She started to lose her fear of him, asking him an important question.

"Have you seen anyone named Gajeel here?" She asks calmly. Kyousuke widened his eyes slightly, still having his back turned to her. He turned around to look at her once more as his eyes shined vibrantly with the rays of sun.

"He has long, black, spikey hair and a cold, serious attitude?" Kyousuke asks skeptically. The girl suddenly felt her heart beat faster. It was _that_ Gajeel.

"Where is he?" The girl asks desperately. Kyousuke realized that he was close to her somehow, but he couldn't understand why. His face became more relaxed.

"The last time I met him," He says calmly, "He was inside this building."

"This building?" The girl asks, to which Kyousuke nods in response. He immediately dismissed the topic, however.

"What's your name?" Kyousuke asks curiously.

"It's Levy." She replies calmly. Kyousuke turned around and closed his eyes in response.

"Just be careful _Levy_. And next time, don't fall for someone as stupid as this cocky dumbass." Kyousuke says calmly. He put his hands in his pockets, opened his eyes, and walked out of sight. After leaving her sight, Levy started to wonder about Kyousuke. What kind of connection did he have with Gajeel, and how was it possible in such a short time? She started to ponder over it, until something else caught her attention.

"Huh? Levy?" Someone asked with a darker voice. Levy turned around in surprise to see Gajeel staring at her confused. She ran up to him in surprise, relieved that he was there.

"Gajeel!" She says relieved, running up to him. She was relieved that he was okay. Gajeel, however, remained calm until he caught a glimpse of what happened. He could see the bruises that she got from what had just happened. They were from the cocky guy brutally ripping her out of the substance, but Gajeel didn't know that.

"What the hell happened to you? Did you get into some kind of fight or something?" Gajeel asks concerned. He was surprised to see Levy at this point in time as she stopped in her tracks and started to explain.

"This guy lied to me and tried to steal me!" Levy explains. Gajeel gained a perplexed expression on his face. Why the hell would he try to kidnap her? Whatever the reason, it obviously failed.

"But then, this guy appeared and killed him, and his eyes looked just like yours. It made me wonder where you were." Levy explains somewhat startled. Gajeel looked ahead of her to see the dead body of the cocky guy. The body was lying there in the pool of blood, dead as a doornail. Gajeel then figured it out. He remembered Kyousuke going after the cocky guy, and realized that the _girlfriend_ that people were talking about was in-fact Levy. His trust in Kyousuke started to build. He grinned over it, to which Levy stared at him perplexed.

"What's the grin for?" Levy asks perplexed.

"It's nothing." Gajeel says seriously. He then lost the grin, still feeling good on the inside, and started to leave. He headed back for the school as Levy followed him to it. Since Levy's here, who else would be here? Why is Gajeel already taking a liking to Kyousuke? These questions were yet to be answered.


	5. Chapter 5: Getting to Know Things

Chapter 5: Getting to Know Things

Kyousuke knew how to get around the school, so heading back in without looking suspicious was a piece of cake. He went through one of the doors that led into the hallway with the stairs that led back to the cafeteria. He wasn't particularly worried about killing the cocky guy though; it was necessary to prevent something bad from happening. As Kyousuke walked through the hallway, he noticed some people who were still gossiping about the cocky guy's "girl-friend".

"_Just your typical, delusional people again_." He thinks to himself with disgust. He never understood the people that went to his school, and he didn't want to. He walked up the stairs and back to the same table that he was sitting at previously, only to be surprised that Gajeel got to the table first. Levy was also there with him, which was kind of surprising. Gajeel didn't mind her being there, since they were good friends. Their relationship was a bit strange though (as in the way that makes you wonder if they're really friends). Kyousuke just stood there, surprised.

"I guess you must've already found out then?" Kyousuke asks calmly. Levy was sitting there, staring at Kyousuke with a curious expression as Gajeel looked at him calmly.

"Yeah." Gajeel says with a calm tone, "You killed him huh?"

"If I didn't, we'd all be dead." Kyousuke says calmly. Gajeel gave him a perplexed expression, wondering how an idiotic weakling would've been able to do such a thing. "It sounds really stupid, but there's a reason behind it." Kyousuke explains. Levy was about to dive into the whole thing.

"It was this red…"

"Don't say it!" Kyousuke shouts, surprising Levy. Gajeel gave him a slightly annoyed look.

"Catch that kind of attention and things can get ugly." Kyousuke explains, rapidly eying the people around him. Gajeel then lost the annoyed look, realizing he wasn't insulting her.

"What the hell was it anyway?" Gajeel asks curiously.

"I'll explain later. I don't like talking around people who can't seem to keep their mouth shut for two seconds." Kyousuke says calmly. Gajeel could easily understand; he hated people just as much as Kyousuke did himself. Kyousuke looked up at the clock to realize it was fifth hour, and he was supposed to be in class. That didn't matter to him though. Kyousuke instead wanted to inform Gajeel and Levy about some vital information relating to their world, so he decided to head outside. "Let's go outside; I'll tell you more about this world." Kyousuke tells the both of them. With that, Gajeel got up and started to follow him, Levy following behind cheerfully. They left the cafeteria and headed for a secluded area around the school, which nobody cared to go to. They sat around in a small circle with Kyousuke holding a light pen, and they watched as Kyousuke started with the basics.

"There's so many things that don't make sense in our world." Kyousuke explains. "Magic energy can be stored inside various objects, so those who don't have innate magical power can use magic objects instead." Kyousuke explains. He drew one of the orbs with the light pen, along with a diagram explaining how it works. Basically, they extract magic energy from the earth and they store it in these objects using Lacrima and transformation spells. They then transform the Lacrima into chips or pills, which they insert into objects and therefore, make magical objects. "This one," Kyousuke says, pulling out the red orb that the cocky guy once had, "is called a _MWD. _It stands for _Magic Warping Detonator_, and it has the ability to erase any form of physical and material existence within a three mile radius." Kyousuke explains. Such a feat surprised the two Earthland wizards.

"Does that mean it can also erase magical energy?" Levy asks surprised. Kyousuke nods his head in response.

"That's what they say, though it's not set in stone." Kyousuke explains. He then fiddled with the orb, snapping something as Levy jumps. Kyousuke just pulled out the pill inside the magic orb; it glowing a pure red. Gajeel stares at Levy as she calms down and smiles a bit. He then looks back at the orb to see that it has become completely clear like a plastic ball. "Now that I've disabled it, it can no longer pose as a threat to us unless it's reassembled." Kyousuke explains. The two Earthland wizards completely understood, just as Kyousuke decided to go one with the explanation of his world.

"People can also steal your magic power. There are various magic tools that exist in this world that allow them to do this." Kyousuke explains while drawing another diagram. Gajeel and Levy wondered how this was possible. Yes, the Eclipse Cannon back in Crocus stole magic power from the competitors in the games, but that wasn't a person. Kyousuke then draws a dragon next to it, which catches Gajeel's attention. "However, there's something special that is apparent for Dragon Slayers." Kyousuke explains, "Apparently, you can't steal a Dragon Slayer's magic power_._"

"What are you saying?" Gajeel asks surprised. Kyousuke smiles a bit and begins to go on; hiding underlying deception.

"People have tried to steal Dragon Slayer magic, but instead they get killed by the magic energy they're trying to extract. It's strange and it hasn't been completely explained, but that's apparently what happens." Kyousuke explains. Gajeel smiled a bit after hearing this, thinking about how awkward but cool that was. Levy was very surprised too. Aside from that, they both understood how everything worked. Kyousuke gained a relaxed expression on his face. "You two might as well stay at my place for the time being." He offers, to which the latter two are surprised.

"Really?" Levy asks astonished.

"Yeah, alright then." Gajeel says calmly. Where he would stay didn't particularly matter to him, but he decided to take up his offer. Kyousuke smiles a bit, erasing the drawing with the light pen and getting up afterwards.

"Well then, I'm heading back." Kyousuke says, getting up and heading back to the school as the other two follow from behind.

* * *

Later on, school ends and everyone can be seen leaving the school and heading home. Roxanne was seen outside with Erza, both of them waiting for Dayton and Natsu. Strangely enough, it was taking forever for the two to get out there, but she still waited anyway. They stood there for almost an hour, chatting with each other as people left the school.

"So…" Erza says, catching Roxanne's attention, "What do you like to do on your free time."

"Free time?" Roxanne says, Erza nodding in response. Roxanne pulled her hand through her hair before responding.

"I like to do a lot of things, but usually I practice my swordplay." Roxanne says. Erza gives her a surprised look.

"Swordplay?" She says inquisitively, her expression changing to that of a decisive smirk. "Perhaps we should test out your skills later." Erza tells Roxanne, having plans for her in the future. Roxanne gave her a somewhat perplexed look before Erza changed the topic. "Anything else?"

"Well…" Roxanne says calmly. "I like gardening and archeology." Erza nodded in response as they continued to watch people leave the school. Erza didn't get to see Roxanne's place last night. They had to rent a hotel because of what happened to her house. Roxanne said that, _"Dayton destroyed part of it when he was practicing his Dragon Slayer magic."_ Roxanne looks up to see Gajeel lying against the school building ahead. It seemed as if he was waiting for others; he would sometimes look behind him to see if anyone was there. Erza looked up and noticed him too.

"Well he's here." Erza says calmly, as Roxanne gets slightly frustrated.

"Yeah, and guess who's not?" She says angrily, being annoyed with Dayton. He was typically off and about all the time, so he would be off somewhere doing something without Roxanne's knowledge of it. Eventually, she couldn't wait any longer and she stormed into the building without hesitation. "He's not gonna be getting away with this again! This is the last time he decides to ditch…" She goes off about; ready to pound him for being a complete hindrance. Erza stayed behind, knowing that Natsu would most likely be with Dayton. She once again stares at Gajeel, who was still waiting for people. He was pretty patient, most of the time. He kept thinking about how people could "steal magic." It sounded too ludicrous to be true. Even the situation with Dragon Slayers was strange. Gajeel turned and locked eyes with Erza for a second as they stared at each other momentarily. They weren't close friends, more like acquaintances. They were at one point once enemies, but this drastically changed with time. He eventually became an important ally and a powerful member of Fairy Tail too. Gajeel stopped staring at Erza and turned to see Kyousuke standing there, also waiting for _someone_.

"She wanted to say hi." Kyousuke says, to which Gajeel becomes annoyed over. He looked up with irritation to see Levy running to Erza. This was just ridiculous. It was almost 5:30 and school ended at 3:45, which was an hour and 45 minutes ago. He might as well have taken a nap with all that free time on his hands. Kyousuke took a while himself; happening to be talking to the school principle for the use of his "Dragon Orb." Kyousuke didn't have any respect for her though, and she was merely a nuisance to him.

"I've told Dayton millions of times not to use that technique! I would've never expected someone as quiet and callous as you to break the rules!" She angrily rants on about. Kyousuke could care less of the things she kept on saying.

"I didn't know it was against school rules to use magic against _another wizard_." Kyousuke remarks, irritating her even more.

"Shut up!" She says angrily, "If you do it again, I'll give you the same punishments!"

"Yeah, whatever." Kyousuke says annoyed, walking off and ignoring her. She continues to argue with him regardless.

"I'll be just as hard on you as I was with Dayton, so you better watch it, YOU HEAR ME?!" She yells. Kyousuke simply walks out the school and all she hears in response is the door shutting. She angrily stomps off in an angry fit. Back to the present, Kyousuke looks up at Gajeel and apologizes.

"Sorry for the long wait, but someone '_important'_ wanted to '_talk'_ with me." Kyousuke says calmly. Kyousuke held no respect for the principle; especially since he thought her obsession with magic was a complete waste of time.

"Don't worry about it." Gajeel says calmly. Kyousuke looked up and saw Levy heading for Erza. Erza, not knowing she was there, turned and became startled by her appearance. Both Gajeel and Kyousuke realized that it was going to be a while before they would be leaving the school.

* * *

As Erza and Levy had their reunion, Roxanne was running around the school looking for Dayton.

"Why can't he just listen for once?! All he has to do is meet me outside at the end of the day. How is that so difficult for him?!" She says to herself annoyed. Roxanne had certain expectations from Dayton, so she was often disappointed when he would go off and do something else without her knowledge. She walked everywhere, currently going down the stairs that lead outside and to the gym. She started to head for the gym, but stopped because something else caught her attention. She looked up to see that Natsu was standing there. Surprisingly, he was alone, which wasn't a good sign. Roxanne felt some sort of strange connection to him, as if he was like Dayton in a way. Natsu looked up to see Roxanne too.

"Hey! It's you." He says surprised; Roxanne immediately dismissing the comment.

"Have you seen Dayton anywhere?" She asks irritated, "It's already 5:00."

"He said he had to do something important." Natsu responds, angering Roxanne even more.

"Are you serious?!" She says angrily, throwing her arms up in the air. She let herself fall onto the bench next to the wall, giving up on searching for him.

"He can never stay with a schedule." Roxanne says in disappointment, calming down. Natsu decided to sit down next to her on the same bench.

"What schedule?"

"Oh, never mind." Roxanne says calmly. Why worry about a schedule when it's almost 5:30? They might've been the only ones at the school, along with Dayton and everyone else outside. She decided to get this stress off of her mind by talking with Natsu for a bit. She started with his outfit. "You know that outfit's going to grab a lot of attention, right?" She asks Natsu, who looks at her with confusion.

"Why, what's wrong with it?"

"It's just not what most people typically wear."

"Alright then, but I'm still wearing the scarf."

"The scarf?" Roxanne asks perplexed. She looked up at Natsu to see a white scarf on his neck. It complimented his outfit, and sometimes it would go unnoticed. "Why? What's so important about that scarf?"

"Igneel gave it to me." Natsu tells her; Roxanne looking at him with surprise.

"Who's Igneel?"

"My father." Natsu tells her, "He's a dragon."

"Oh." Roxanne says calmly. She then understood why it meant so much to Natsu, knowing about Dayton's past a bit too. They both sat there in silence for a bit, both of them thinking about dragons. Natsu then turns to Roxanne in question.

"Do you know anything about Dayton's dad?" Natsu asks curiously. Roxanne took a deep breath before explaining.

"Dayton doesn't open up to me about it that much, but he told me that his father's name was _Magmaflare._" Roxanne explains to Natsu. "He said he was once close with him, but one day he just _vanished_, and he never appeared again." Roxanne explained. The same thing happened to Natsu, so he could understand Dayton's pain. Roxanne then started to smile a bit.

"It's just that he's always so happy and adventurous; you'd never think something like that would've happened to him." Roxanne explains to Natsu. It made Natsu feel good on the inside because he was like that himself; always looking to the positive side of things and ready to explore the next thing at his feet.

"However," She said calmly, "I guess the same could be said of Kyousuke."

"Why's that?" Natsu asks curiously. Roxanne felt like Natsu was someone she could trust, so she didn't feel regretful telling him about this.

"He's dark, resentful, mysterious and dangerous. Getting close to him is like trying to wield a double edged sword; he hits you where it hurts." Roxanne explains with a sorrow tone.

"Sounds like some iron-head I know." Natsu says with an annoyed tone, thinking about Gajeel.

"That's what was so surprising." Roxanne says calmly, "They're so similar it's unbelievable. Yeah sure, they may look a bit different, but their eyes are unmistakable; not to mention their personalities are like two sticks of butter."

"I guess so." Natsu says raising his shoulders.

"Well, Gajeel might be more aggressive and….I don't know." Roxanne says stressfully. She started to get upset once again. "I try to help out Kyousuke, but I feel like all he does is ignore me and resent me." Roxanne says sadly. It hurt her so much, since she liked him just about as much as she liked Dayton. His rejection of her didn't stop her from liking him, but she was also torn over why he would neglect her feelings the way he did. Natsu put a hand on her shoulder, comforting her as she looked up in surprise. He gave her a warm, comforting smile.

"Don't worry. Maybe he's going through some hard times or something."

"But he's like that _all the time_." Roxanne says, surprising Natsu a bit. He tried to cheer her up.

"Come on now! He's still you're friend, right? Isn't that all that matters?" Natsu asks with a positive attitude. Roxanne turned and gave him a surprised look. He was so cheerful; it was hard not to like him. However, Roxanne still didn't feel like Natsu actually understood what she was going through. It only contributed to the pain she held from the past.

"Yeah, you're right." She says calmly. She put on a fake smile that masked the inner disappointment that lingered within her. Smiling towards each other, they eventually heard footsteps approaching them. They look up to see that it's none other than Dayton, who was standing there with a look of curiosity on his face.

"Is everything all right here?" Dayton asks calmly, angering Roxanne as she storms towards him.

"Where the hell were you?!" She asks angrily, walking up and grabbing him as she dragged him out of the school.

"Jeez, I'm sorry!" Dayton says frustrated, "I had to look into something important you know!"

"Yeah, sure you did." Roxanne says angrily, continuing to drag him as they exit the school. They approach Erza, who was waving goodbye to Levy as the three wizards were headed to Kyousuke's place. Roxanne and Dayton looked at Levy confused as Natsu ran up to Erza in excitement.

"Hey! Is that Levy?!"

"Of course it is Natsu." Erza tells him in a polite tone. "She's staying with Gajeel and Kyousuke for the night."

"Next time I see Gajeel, I'm gonna give him a piece of me!" Natsu says battle ready. He was already getting fired up at the thought of battling Gajeel and beating him. Dayton ran past him as Natsu looked at him with surprise.

"Race you home!" Dayton says, giving himself a head-start as Natsu chases after him.

"You won't beat me that easily!" Natsu says cheerfully as the two race to Dayton's house. Roxanne and Erza watched delightfully as the two raced home.

"Only one day and they're buddies." Roxanne says in disbelief.

"That's what happens when you meet Natsu." Erza says calmly. She had a smile on her face, but Roxanne suddenly lost hers.

"Sometimes I wish it was that way with Kyousuke." She says to herself sadly. Erza looked back at her in wonder.

"What was that?" She asks calmly. Roxanne shakes her head, forgetting about it.

"It's nothing." Roxanne tells her. She starts to get a move on back to her house. "We should head to my place." Roxanne tells Erza, as Erza agrees. They both quietly head back to the house, ending the day and starting their weekend. What were they going to do next?


	6. Chapter 6: Let's Have Some Fun

Chapter 6: Let's Have Some Fun

Today was a Saturday, which meant that school was closed. Not that some people cared; it was a day for them to take a break and enjoy themselves for once. Natsu and Dayton were at the latter's house eating sugar-loaded pancakes for breakfast. Dayton's fridge was basically a cabinet of sugar, and he wasn't very clean about it either. Luckily, it was just the two of them, so it was his problem alone. During the session of their destructive eating, Dayton had thought up the perfect idea of what to do for that day. He quickly stopped Natsu from shoving a massive chunk of chocolate pancakes down his throat and began to explain.

"You know today's a Saturday, right?" Dayton asks energetically. Natsu looked up at him and ate the massive chunk of pancakes anyway.

"Yeah? What are you saying?"

"There's this hot springs that we should go to."

"Hot springs? That's sounds awesome!" Natsu says with excitement. This forced him to continue eating the pancakes like a monster, instead this time he ate even faster. He could've won the title for the "fastest fridge raider in the universe." Dayton got up and ran into the laundry room, soon coming back out with two pairs of swimming trunks.

"It starts at 10:00, so we better get moving fast!" Dayton says, throwing Natsu the pair that had an orange, tribal flame design on it. Dayton, holding the pair that was red with white tropical designs, ran into the laundry room and shut the door. He began to change in the laundry room as Natsu did the same in the kitchen, scarfing down the rest of the pancakes right after.

"Yeah! Let's go!" Natsu says after finishing, idiotically rushing into the laundry room where Dayton was getting dressed. Dayton, who was already ready to go, ran for the door at the exact same time as Natsu. This only resulted in a massive collision as Natsu managed to grab the door knob. He managed to pull it open as the two fell to the floor, both of them instantly bouncing back up as they zoomed out the door. They unknowingly left their breakfast lying out though, which was going to attract bugs and mice in no time at all.

* * *

Aside from them, Erza and Roxanne were at Roxanne's house; the latter having a really nice place. It wasn't fantastic, but it was in way better condition than Dayton's. She had a large garden in her backyard and a training room for practicing with weaponry. Unlike Dayton and Natsu, Erza and Roxanne were civilized people, and they ate their breakfast with manners for the house and each other. Currently, they were eating home-made omelets that Roxanne cooked up, since Erza was the guest. Erza was enjoying her food with delight, having a passion for the exquisite taste of food rather than being the monster of craving madness that Natsu was.

"This is amazing!" Erza says passionately. She was shocked over Roxanne's incredible cooking skills. Roxanne turned to her with a smile on her face.

"I've gotten a reputation for being the 'best cook'."

"Really?" Erza says curiously. Roxanne then opens up a cupboard that happens to be right in-front of Erza. It contained various awards for different competitions; one of them being an award for the "best cook". Erza stared at them slightly surprised, before looking back down at her omelet to finish it up. "A job well done." She says calmly, finishing up her meal. Seeing the awards made her start to think about Roxanne's skill in the use of weapons. "A love for weapons and food," Erza says, catching Roxanne's attention, "You remind me of myself at times."

"Really? You like cake?" Roxanne randomly asks. Despite how off topic it was, Erza looked up at Roxanne with eyes of pure gold.

"Cake?!" Erza says surprised. She loved cake, and there were times when she'd buy 50 pieces of cake just for her own sake. There had to be something about the taste of cake that made Erza crave it so much. Surprisingly, Roxanne was no different. She opened up her fridge to introduce Erza to at least 20 different cakes inside, along with other foods and ingredients. Erza was tempted to storm the fridge and scarf all of them down, but she knew that would be disrespectful, so she resisted her temptation with great difficulty. Roxanne shut the fridge there-after, easing Erza's temptation.

"If we're going to have some, it should be later at night." Roxanne suggests. Erza nods her head in agreement.

"Yes, of course." Finished with her meal, she got up and headed for the sink as she washed her own plate. She was quite fond of Roxanne's place. The counter was dividing the kitchen and living room apart, so she could watch TV while working in the kitchen. The living room had a hallway that led to the front door of the house, along with a stairway that led to the basement. There was also another door next to the living room that would lead to Roxanne's bedroom. She liked keeping her place clean, which is why she usually _never_ lets Dayton come to her place. Anyway, they both were already dressed, and they decided to explore and walk around the neighborhood for the time being. There wasn't really anything else for them to do, so why not use it for some fun? Erza was dressed up in nice clothing; wearing a white shirt with her blue skirt underneath, along with a blue bow on her shirt. Roxanne was just wearing a green, short-sleeved shirt with blue-jeans and a silver necklace. After cleaning up the kitchen, they both headed out the front door. Upon doing so, they witnessed Natsu and Dayton run right in-front of them, almost knocking them over. In fact, Dayton actually hit Roxanne the face, causing her to lose her patience immediately. Natsu and Dayton caused the neighbors to close their doors and shut their windows because of how loud they were being. The two idiots were knocking all sorts of pots and decorations over in the process. Erza and Roxanne, watching them make a trail of destruction, took action and started chasing after them.

"YOU IDIOTS!" Roxanne screams angrily, quickly pulling off one of her shoes and storming off after them. Dayton and Natsu turn around to notice her storming towards them in a rage.

"Oh shit! She's coming for us!" Dayton panics as Natsu turns his head to see Erza with her too. They both freak out and start sprinting for the hot springs, hoping to evade the two of them by getting there before Erza and Roxanne have a chance to stop them. Catching onto their getaway plan, Roxanne angrily throws her shoe at the two of them, managing to hit Dayton in the back of the head. It was enough to make Dayton painfully trip and slide on the hard concrete, causing some serious road rash as Natsu spins around in shock.

"NO!" Natsu says in a panic. He quickly grabs Dayton and throws him over his shoulder, continuing to charge for the hot springs at high speed.

"PUT HIM DOWN!" Roxanne screams angrily, Natsu ignoring her. People watched from the inside as Erza and Roxanne only contributed to the issue. The group managed to sprint past Kyousuke's house as Gajeel, who was on Kyousuke's roof, watched them and their performance. No one seemed to notice he was there right away, which was kind of surprising. He took a bite out of a small piece of metal he was eating.

"What a bunch of morons." He says to himself quietly. Dayton, looking up, realizes that it's Kyousuke's house, and suddenly has a change of plan.

"Hey!" Dayton yells, getting Natsu's attention, "Turn and go to that grey house!"

"What?!" Natsu says confused. He turns to his right to see Kyousuke's house, only seconds later seeing Gajeel on his roof. "Hey! It's Gajeel!"

"Hmph." Gajeel mutters to himself. Natsu turns and runs for Kyousuke's door in a panic, losing Roxanne rather quickly as she almost trips herself, only to actually trip seconds later. He runs up to Kyousuke's door and puts Dayton down, who gets up and bashes on the door.

"HEY! ARE YOU IN THERE?!" Dayton yells loudly. Gajeel heard their commotion and thought that they were complete retards.

"He never learns!" Erza mutters to herself, quickly grabbing Roxanne and pushing her back to her feet as she then sped off. They worked so well together that they could easily out-smart Natsu and Dayton without too much effort. Seconds later, Kyousuke opens the front door of his house, wearing a blue bath-robe while staring at Dayton completely irritated.

"Are you kidding me? What do you want?" Kyousuke asks annoyed. Both Dayton and Natsu start panicking in-front of his house as they beg for help.

"Roxanne and Erza are gonna kill us!"

"Please you have to do something!" They both beg, desperately trying to convince Kyousuke to help them. Dayton attention though is quickly shifted to the guitars that were hanging up above Kyousuke's fireplace.

"Whoa, how many guitars do you have?" Dayton asks curiously, instantly forgetting about Roxanne's pursuit of him. One of the guitars he saw was a black acoustic, and the other two were electric guitars; one being red and white and the other being completely black. Kyousuke turned away so that they both couldn't see his face.

"Just five. Too bad you don't get to use any of them." Kyousuke says, turning around and slamming the door on the two of them. They both start to panic and bang on the door as Kyousuke simply ignores them. Both of them turn around and scream as Erza and Roxanne were storming towards them like rockets.

Meanwhile, Kyousuke quietly walked over to the fireplace, which was actually in his living room. There was a large plasma TV that hung on the wall above the fireplace. In the room also was a brown sofa that Levy happened to be laying on as she read a book. The book was a book called "Musical Electricity: The complete guide to electronic music!" She seemed to already love the book, and she was fascinated by its contents; mainly about synthesizers and DAWs.

"Wow, this book has tons of information on this 'electronic music'." Levy says out-loud, catching Kyousuke's attention. He turned to her and realized that she was reading the book.

"It's not that difficult to learn. It just takes a lot of time." He explains calmly, surprising her even more.

"When you read this book though, it looks so easy."

"Of course it's easy, when you learn to master the craft."

"Good point." Levy says. She wasn't that interested in music, but it still sounded cool.

As the two of them were talking, Gajeel appeared. He was coming down the stairs to head into the living room, becoming annoyed with the screams of Natsu and Dayton as Erza and Roxanne attempted to slaughter them. He didn't seem to look so full of contempt; not minding being here with Levy and Kyousuke. He actually kind of enjoyed it, even if no one knew. There was a piece of metal sticking out of his mouth, and he kept chewing on it as he walked around the place. He observed the room he was in as the guitars on Kyousuke's wall caught his attention. One of them was a standard, beige-colored acoustic, and another was a blue guitar with a red and black tribal design on it. He was already interested in it.

"What kind of guitar is this?" Gajeel asks curiously, grabbing the blue guitar as Kyousuke and Levy looked at him surprised.

"An electric guitar. You play it just like an acoustic." Kyousuke says, Gajeel grinning in response, "There's something you need to do first though."

"Huh?" Kyousuke walks up and gently grabs the guitar from Gajeel, taking it and gently setting it down. He walked over to a cabinet next to the TV and pulled out a large black box. This box, however, had a large wireframe on the front side, along with a bunch of interesting knobs on it.

"This is an amplifier. You hook the guitar up to it and tune some settings to get the sound you want. You can then play it the way it was meant to be played." Kyousuke says, having hooked up and adjusted the amplifier in the process. He played a short guitar solo, along with some cool riffs that were reminiscent of certain classic rock songs. Gajeel was easily pleased and Levy was applauding.

"Oh yeah, I can get used to this!" Gajeel says energetically. Kyousuke wasn't finished yet however.

"That's not all." He tells them; Gajeel and Levy looking at him confused, "There are so many different types of tones that you can get with this amp. I'll show you another one."

"Really?" Both Gajeel and Levy ask perplexed. Kyousuke messed with the amp settings once again, and this time, he got in a different stance.

"This is what they call '_metal music'_." Kyousuke says with excitement, Gajeel looking at him now even more perplexed. He played a chord that resulted in a massive blast of sound that came from the amp. It was so loud, Levy jumped up from the couch in complete shock while Gajeel widened his eyes. Kyousuke started playing a solo as they both witnessed the loud, destructive power of the guitar. Levy had already despised the crushed, distorted sound; but Gajeel was just the opposite. The sound was so aggressive that he basically fell in love with it. Its powerful sound got him so pumped and ready for battle. Eventually, Kyousuke stopped playing it, and Gajeel started laughing wickedly as the sound faded out. Levy turned to look at him like he was a complete monster as Kyousuke watched him with surprise. It wasn't any strange laugh, more like an evil one that was more brutal and less sinister. Eventually he fell backwards on to the sofa as Kyousuke looked at them; expecting their thoughts on it.

"Awesome, isn't it?" Kyousuke says with excitement, putting the guitar back up as something came to mind. Gajeel turned to Levy, who was unable to comment on it.

"What's up with you?" Gajeel asks, Levy shaking a bit, "You couldn't handle that?"

"Wow Gajeel." She says annoyed, crossing her arms and looking away from him as Gajeel turned and looked at Kyousuke.

"Learn to play that sometime." Gajeel teases Levy, having a grin on his face. She looks back at Gajeel annoyed. Kyousuke walked up to the two of them with a suggestion.

"You know, I don't plan to just sit in this house all day. We need to figure out what we're gonna do." Kyousuke suggests. Gajeel gained an interested expression and Levy jumped up smiling.

"We should head down to the hot spring I saw!" She says excited. Kyousuke suddenly stopped for a moment.

"And what do you plan on doing?"

"What do you mean?"

"The hot spring is split into gender-based sections." Kyousuke says bluntly as Levy caught on. A sorrow expression was placed onto her face.

"Oh yeah, that's right." She says calmly. The three both sat there in silence, that is, before Levy came up with an idea. "Um…well I can hang out with Erza." Levy says happily. This surprised the other two, both staring at her surprised.

"Do you even know where she's headed?" Kyousuke tells her. Surprisingly, she gets up and starts heading for the door.

"Don't worry, I'll find out!" She tells the two of them, both watching her as she walks out the door. She looks to realize that neither Erza nor Roxanne were to be found. They must've left the house while Kyousuke was demonstrating the use of his electric guitar. She shook her head in disappointment as Kyousuke came out the front door from behind her.

"You're gonna need a swim-suit if you go to the hot spring, because this is actually a hot springs _pool._" Kyousuke explains to her. With that the three decided to do just that.

* * *

In the timespan of about a half-an-hour to 45 minutes, Kyousuke got his trunks on, headed to the store and had Gajeel and Levy pick out their own swimming gear. Levy's was an orange bikini with yellow tropical designs, and Gajeel's was a vibrant green pair of trunks with white lines on it. Kyousuke's was black with blue electricity coming from the bottom up. The three managed to make it to the hot springs. It wasn't as busy as they expected, and luckily the other four wizards happened to be there too. Levy waved a cheerful goodbye as she went into the women's area of the hot springs pool and Gajeel and Kyousuke went into the men's section. Levy met up with Erza and Roxanne and had fun, whereas Gajeel and Kyousuke weren't excited to see Dayton and Natsu. At least they were the only ones there, and not some other idiots that were even worse. The two walked in and saw Dayton and Natsu sitting there with smiles on their face, looking like they're enjoying the comfort of the hot springs. It was surprising enough that Natsu could sit there as patiently as he was. Gajeel and Kyousuke chose the other tub in the room, so they didn't have to deal with Dayton and Natsu. They both easily adjusted to the temperature of the tub, closing their eyes as they tried to relax in it. For a few minutes they both just sat there, thinking about how relieving it was and the events that have already happened. As time passed, Kyousuke decided to start off with a conversation.

"So," Kyousuke says, catching Gajeel's attention, "What do you think of this world?"

"The people here are ridiculous and your principle's a whack-job." Gajeel bluntly says. Kyousuke could easily understand which surprised Gajeel because most people didn't feel the same way.

"You can say that again. At least there are some things that can be enjoyable, like music for instance."

"Yeah." Gajeel says calmly. He grinned to Kyousuke, just as Kyousuke came up with a cool idea.

"We could become a musical group and rock the world; _blow them away_ with our music." Kyousuke suggests, Gajeel chuckling at the idea. They got along very well, which was surprising because Gajeel usually didn't get along with others so easily, especially other guys. Kyousuke decided to change the topic a bit. There was something he wanted to know about.

"So then, what's your opinion of me?" Kyousuke asks curiously. Gajeel turned and gave him a calm expression as the curiosity ate away at Kyousuke.

"You're not bad." Gajeel says with a friendly tone. Kyousuke gave him a surprised look before staring into the water in-front of him.

"I see." He says calmly. He moved his hands around in the water, analyzing everything that was happening within it. He thought about Gajeel for a bit before responding again.

"I took a good liking to you when I first met you." Kyousuke says calmly. Gajeel looked at him with a serious expression that covered the surprise lingering inside of him. Gajeel wasn't usually interested in making friends, but this could be a different case with Kyousuke. Kyousuke closed his eyes and let himself sink into the tub, becoming immersed within the hot water. Gajeel looked up to his right to see Natsu and Dayton already leaving the place. The two idiots still didn't even notice them as they left the hot springs, but perhaps that was a good thing. They both had put on white t-shirts that Dayton brought so that they wouldn't be going around shirtless. They didn't bring towels to dry off though, so their shirts got soaked anyway.

"Hey, wasn't there someone else there?" Dayton asks curiously. He might've noticed Gajeel and Kyousuke there, but he was probably too excited and his overactive brain didn't pick up the information properly.

"Maybe, I don't know." Natsu says, scratching his neck while scanning the area. "At least we got away from Erza."

"Mind telling me who this _Erza _is?" A strange voice says. The two become startled and look around to find out what said that.

"What the heck was that?" Dayton says surprised.

"Try remembering me kid and you'll see." The voice says. It had a higher pitched voice that sounded more sinister than most. Dayton then looked to his right, seeing a guy there. He had short, dirty-blonde hair that wrapped around his head and purple eyes. He had this weird attire on that was black with white lines running down it in an elegant fashion. He held one of his hands on his hips like a girl (his bodily structure was thinner than your average male), and he was giving the two of them an evil smirk.

Dayton realized who it was, and without even thinking, he attacked him. He immersed his hands in lava and hit the guy with ease; the guy dodging in a flash. He appeared behind Natsu, attempting to attack by holding his finger out towards him. Natsu, however, instantly spun around and covered his fists in flames, attacking him right there and then. The guy easily dodged it and moved a good distance away from the two. Natsu, who missed the guy, accidently hit the ground and made a small crater in the process. The guy stared at them angrily while covering his stomach where Dayton actually made contact.

"God damn, this burns like hell!" The guy says angrily. He was surprised that Dayton managed to hit him. Dayton and Natsu stood side by side as they eyed the mysterious guy; Dayton holding some sort of prejudice against him. Who was he? What did he have to do with Dayton? There's much more to it than you'd ever think.


	7. Chapter 7: Dread of the Past Returns

Chapter 7: Dread of the Past Returns

The guy held his stomach in pain as Dayton glared at him. He was _somehow_ surprised by how much he grew strength-wise. Dayton didn't have a clue of the guy's actual identity, but he knew where he was from, and that was enough.

"Who the heck is this guy?" Natsu asks, pounding his fists together as Dayton walks up to Natsu, keeping an eye on the guy the whole time.

"There's this group called the D-Raided, and he's a member."

"Oh yeah?" Natsu says while looking at the guy. The guy wanted to burst out laughing while overhearing their conversation.

"Ha ha ha! This can't be real! You seriously don't remember me kid?!" The guy says in a higher pitched voice. He kept on standing in a girly fashion, which looked rather strange to the other two. Dayton gave the guy a perplexed look, unable to remember who he was.

"What are you talking about? I don't know who the heck you are!"

"Is that so? Do you have some sort of memory loss or something?" The guy says shocked. He still couldn't believe that Dayton couldn't remember him; he himself remembering when he "met" Dayton a while back. "Maybe you're just stupid." He says, angering Dayton and Natsu.

"You're making yourself look like a hypocrite, so please just shut up." A womanly voice says. The guy turns around in surprise to see a taller woman standing there, having a hateful glare glued to her face. She had long, dark-brown hair with green, envious eyes and vibrant green lips. She wore the same clothes as the other guy, except it was more like a dress since she was a woman. She kept shooting a hateful glare at the other guy as he looked back at her with an angry expression.

"You?!" The guy shouts, the woman rolling her eyes in response. "What the hell are you doing here?!"

"I want to ask _you _that question. This is what happens when you decide to play games and not follow the rules." The woman says while shaking her head in disappointment. The guy looked at her in confusion as the woman walked up to the guy elegantly.

"What the hell are you saying?"

"You dumbass! You found the wrong guy!" She angrily yells, kneeing him in the stomach. Natsu and Dayton watched in shock as she started to torment the other guy, despite both of them working for the D-Raided. They eventually started fighting amongst themselves with the guy upper-cutting her in the face but missing by a long-shot. She got even angrier and punched him in the face, going for his neck to choke him.

"You bitch!" The guy angrily yells, shooting her an angry expression. He pulled up his index finger and pointed it at her face as a white light started to gather around it. He was about to blast something towards her at point blank range. In a shock, she punched him in the stomach and flipped over, kicking down on the same area as it would force him to stop. It indeed stopped him, as he then helplessly started falling to the ground. Natsu and Dayton watched in shock as the guy slammed into the hard ground, leaving a bodily impression in the ground from the impact. Natsu instantly became disgusted with their disloyalty towards each other, but Dayton couldn't think about that right now.

"_I'm the wrong guy?" _He thought to himself perplexed. Dayton didn't know what to think. Why was he the wrong guy and who were they really after? "Hey you!" Dayton yells to the woman. She ignored him as she went after the guy she just defeated; Dayton continuing on anyways. "What do you mean I'm the wrong guy?!"

"If that were your business, maybe I would tell you." The woman says sternly. She gave Dayton a sinister smirk, only angering him in the process. He covered himself in his Lava Dragon Slayer magic and angrily charged at the woman.

"I don't care! Tell me now!" Natsu covered his fists in flames as he got ready to fight. The woman was easily caught off-guard as she went into a defensive position.

"_So this kid's a dragon slayer too."_ She thinks to herself slightly surprised. Dayton was about to punch her in the chest. However, she instantly jumped up onto the wall next to her, running across it and jumping off as she headed for the alleyway behind Natsu. He was a step ahead, however, grabbing her leg while she was in midair. Natsu was about to drag her down with his flame-engulfed fists. She turned around and looked at him with disgust; pulling out a tan ball from her pocket.

"LET GO OF ME!" She angrily yells, throwing the ball down at the ground. It exploded into a large mass of tan smoke that she used as a cover for her escape. Natsu and Dayton covered their eyes so they wouldn't be blinded by it, as the smoke would burn their eyes.

"Dammit! What a cheap shot!" Dayton says annoyed, trying to move through the smoke without blinding himself, bumping into Natsu in the process.

"Hey!"

"Sorry." Dayton says apologetically. They just stopped moving around so they wouldn't make things difficult for themselves. Eventually, the smoke started to fade away, and Dayton and Natsu opened their eyes in relief. They looked around to see that she was gone and realized that she had gotten away, leaving them with nothing but disappointment. "Ugh! She got away!" Dayton angrily shouts, kicking about at the ground in annoyance.

"Next time she runs into us, she's gonna get a real pounding!" Natsu says energetically while bumping his fists together. In the midst of their disappointment, they start to hear footsteps approaching them. They looked up only to see that it was Gajeel and Kyousuke, both looking as if something strange happened.

"Where was that?!" Kyousuke asks concerned, receiving a confused look from Natsu and Dayton.

"Where was what?"

"Did you not hear that explosion?" Kyousuke asks, to which Dayton and Natsu look at each other confused.

"What explosion?" They both say in sync, as they both look like idiots in-front of Gajeel and Kyousuke.

"Are you deaf?" Gajeel says disappointed, Kyousuke shaking his head in disappointment.

"What was that?" Natsu says annoyed, getting up in Gajeel's face as Gajeel only becomes more annoyed.

"You moron! It happened just a minute ago salamander!" Gajeel says annoyed. They continue arguing as Erza, Roxanne, and Levy appear behind them; all with shocked expressions on their faces.

"Where was that explosion?" Erza asks in a serious tone. Natsu became even more confused as a result, and he gave her a perplexed look.

"What?! Erza?! I didn't hear an explosion!" Natsu says, greatly infuriating Erza. She lost it, going mad and punching Natsu right in the face, sending him flying backwards before he painfully slid across the ground. There was a large bruise on his cheek from the impact of the punch, and Erza wasn't happy.

"That explosion was less than a mile away you ignorant fool!" Erza shouts angrily; Natsu lying on the ground in pain and shock.

"I'm…so…sorry…Erza." Natsu says in shock. Erza just crossed her arms in response; upset at Natsu for being ignorant and foolish. Roxanne was calmly watching and Levy was slightly surprised. Dayton looked at them all just as confused as Natsu was.

"I don't get it. You guys heard an explosion?" Dayton asks calmly. The others initially look at Dayton surprised before becoming completely disappointed with him, shaking their heads annoyed and berating him. He soon started to hear flames, turning around and seeing smoke float into the sky from a certain area in the city _less than a mile away_. Then he turned back around to receive the negative comments from each of the wizards.

"Oh my…"

"The amount of stupidity..."

"He's just as stupid as Salamander."

"Wow…"

"Disgraceful." They all go on. Dayton started to get upset since the whole group was disappointed with him.

"Come ON! I'm not stupid! I swear! I didn't hear any explosion whatsoever!"

"Yeah, whatever." They all say in perfect sync. Dayton crossed his arms in annoyance and looked away. Roxanne then started to wonder about what had happened, noticing that Dayton still had his hands covered in his Dragon Slayer magic.

"Hey, what happened?" Roxanne asks calmly, catching Dayton's attention. "Your hands are still covered in lava."

"Oh…right." Dayton says slowly, reverting to normal. Everyone started watching him like a hawk, waiting for his answer as if it was their food. Dayton took a bit of time to answer as he thought about the markings on their clothing and their personalities, not to mention their types of magic. There was no mistaking it.

"It was the D-Raided." Dayton says calmly. Gajeel, Erza, and Levy looked at him with confused expressions, not having a clue of what the D-Raided even was. Roxanne gasped in shock.

"What?! You can't be…"

"I'm not joking." Dayton puts it. This became a serious issue; one not to be taken lightly. Kyousuke's reaction, however, was the most shocking. He angrily walked up to Dayton and grabbed him by his shirt, pinning him up against the wall in a rage. Everyone watched him in complete shock as they didn't know how to react.

"What?!" Kyousuke says angrily. He was very pissed off about it, but no one knew why. Roxanne was the most shocked of the group, unable to understand his reasons for his anger.

"Kyousuke?"

"You better be telling me the truth or this is gonna get ugly. Was it them?!" Kyousuke says angrily, ignoring Roxanne. Everyone realized how serious Kyousuke was, and decided not to interfere. Kyousuke kept tightening his grip around Dayton's shirt as if saying that name was a sin. Dayton looked at him and saw the hatred seething out of his eyes, it being deadly and dangerous.

"Yeah, it was! Let go of me now you f…" Kyousuke just dropped him, letting Dayton slide against the wall until he hit the ground. Everyone watched him in shock as he started to walk away, Roxanne being concerned.

"What was that…?"

"Shut up. I'm not talking about it." Kyousuke says angrily. He ignored Roxanne's concern and walked away from them all, leaving for somewhere specific. They watched every step he took until he turned into an alleyway and disappeared from sight. The only one who wasn't completely shocked or offended was Gajeel. He thought that there may be more to it than meets the eye. Gajeel wasn't one to jump to conclusions in this type of situation; especially when it involved someone like Kyousuke. He started walking off in his direction, catching everyone's attention as they looked at him in surprise. Levy was a bit surprised herself.

"Where are you going Gajeel?" She asks. He turned a bit to look back at her.

"Stay here. I'm gonna go talk to him myself." He says calmly. With that he went to track down Kyousuke. It wouldn't be difficult for him, as Kyousuke's scent was different from the others. He vanished behind the building in the same alleyway. With the two of them gone, the others got together and helped Natsu and Dayton up. They weren't in any critical condition, unless you count Erza's destructive punch to Natsu's face as a critical issue.

"So what's this D-Raided?" Erza asks Roxanne calmly.

"I'll explain at my house. If we talk about them out here, they might try to track us down." Roxanne explains calmly. She and Dayton felt troubled, knowing about them being here. We also know that Kyousuke clearly isn't happy, and we have yet to find out why.

* * *

In time, they all got to Roxanne's house. They all were in the kitchen, and they all had some snacks and beverages before Roxanne started explaining. Levy and Erza were sitting on the countertop and Natsu and Dayton were snacking away, much to Roxanne's dismay.

"Alright, I'm going to explain the details relating to the D-Raided." Roxanne tells them. They all sat there with their eyes and ears open, ready for the explanation. Roxanne took a deep breath before starting.

"The D-Raided is an organization known to be one of the most dangerous in existence. So far, anyone who has tried to resist their forces was annihilated without hesitation." Roxanne explains.

"Annihilated?" Erza questions in surprise. "Why would they go to such lengths to stop their opponents?"

"It's because they fear being destroyed. There _were_ bands of people powerful enough to take down the organization, including second generation Dragon Slayers, but they weren't able to stop them." Roxanne explains. She took a drink from a glass of red wine that she had on the table before continuing. "Maybe with all of you, including Gajeel and Kyousuke, we could eliminate them, but that's just a possibility. People have tried stealing Dragon Slayer magic and have failed, but the D-Raided has found a way to do it." Roxanne explains, surprising everyone.

"What? You can't be serious?" Natsu says surprised, as Roxanne shakes her head.

"I'm dead serious." Roxanne says calmly. Dayton's memories suddenly returned with fear, assuming that it has a connection with what she's about to say. "They can rip out a Dragon Slayer's manifestation." She explains whilst shocking everyone, especially Levy.

"Rip out?!" Levy says shocked. She couldn't help but think of Gajeel when she heard this. "What is that supposed to mean?!"

"They first forcefully forge all their magic energy into a single organ that's located within their bodies. Once that's finished, it's then ripped out, killing the Dragon Slayers in the process." Roxanne explains. Dayton couldn't believe his ears; everyone else feeling the exact same way as Roxanne continued. "For some reason they can't use the magic collected inside of the organs, so I don't know why they keep them. What I do know is…"

"Stop it!" Dayton angrily shouts. He grabbed Roxanne's shoulder in shock as she turned to him in confusion.

"Dayton!" Roxanne says shocked. A shocked Dayton then heads for Roxanne's backyard, upset over what she was saying. Everyone watched him in surprise, all just as confused as Roxanne. Natsu got up and decided to talk to Dayton, heading for the backyard as well. Roxanne was so confused; she couldn't think properly for a minute.

"What did I say?" Roxanne says upsettingly. "I didn't mean to upset him."

"It's ok." Erza says calmly, putting a hand on her shoulder. Roxanne rested her arm on the counter and then let her head fall onto her arm. There was just so much stress; Kyousuke reacting the way he did, Dayton getting so easily upset, and the appearance of the D-Raided on top of it all.

Outside, Natsu saw Dayton sitting on the edge of patio next to her lawn. He kept messing around with his hands; holding one hand and then holding the other hand and all over again. Natsu could tell he was upset.

"What are you getting so upset for?" Natsu asks concerned. He walked up and sat down on the edge of the patio next to Dayton. Dayton took a sigh before telling him.

"I just don't get why she would say something like that." Dayton says calmly. Natsu was a bit confused.

"What do you mean?"

"There used to be someone else that would hang out with us. He and I were good rivals, I mean; we always had fun pounding each other. Roxanne was really good friends with him too; treating us both the same." Dayton explains. "But then it happened." His tone became drastically negative. Natsu was ready to hear anything Dayton had to say, no matter how tragic it was. "The D-Raided came and he turned himself in to save her." Dayton explains. Natsu couldn't believe what he was hearing.

"Why did he do that?!"

"If he didn't, we could be dead right now, and they were just too powerful for the three of us."

"What about Kyousuke?"

"He wasn't there at the time. He came into our lives later." Dayton says. Suddenly, he started to break down a bit.

"I don't understand; does she not remember any of this happening?! It's like it completely faded from her mind!" Dayton says emotionally. He was clearly upset, and he was trying not to shed tears over it. Natsu felt concerned for Dayton, and he put a hand on his shoulder in response. Dayton looked up to him surprise.

"Hey man, calm down now." Natsu says encouragingly.

"I know how it feels to lose someone you love, but she's still here right? Come on now!"

"I know…" Dayton says, still upset.

"I bet she still cares; it's just not on her mind right now. We're a team!" Natsu says with pride. Dayton couldn't help but agree.

"And I won't let this team break up." Dayton says calmly with a hint of confidence. He got up and headed for the door, stopping as he grabbed the door's handle. He turned to Natsu, who was smiling at Dayton. "Thank you Natsu." He says calmly, keeping the tear that poured down from his eye hidden. Natsu's smile turned into that of a cheerful grin. With that, they both went back inside to reconcile with Roxanne.

* * *

Erza and Natsu were people that others could look to for help. They were so kind and they cared so much. Gajeel didn't have that impression, however. People feared him whenever he came by, and they dared not to mess with him. Even when he joined Fairy Tail, people still didn't see him as someone who really cared, perhaps with the exclusion of Levy. There was one person in particular who would admire this impression and see the truth inside of Gajeel, and he was just like him.

* * *

In the meantime, Kyousuke was sitting on the edge of a large canyon on the outskirts of the city. He had his arms around his knees, sitting there emotionally blank. He looked down at the canyon, admiring its large size and the beauty it held. The river reflected the sun's beauty whilst the shadows gave it its intense feeling of depth. He came there all the time, knowing that words wouldn't solve anything. He never trusted people and will never trust people. Most of all, he hated the D-Raided, and he wouldn't let anything stop him from making them pay for what they had done to him.

"_Dammit! This shit's happening again." _Kyousuke thought to himself with agonizing anger. His hatred began to rise once more. "_Fucking pathetic, worthless souls. They should just fucking rot and burn. I'll make sure of it. Most people couldn't understand the shit I go through anyways. Hell, no one does. Not even…" _

"What the hell are you doing?" Gajeel says with confusion. Kyousuke turned around and looked at him surprised, wondering what he was doing. He had his arms crossed and didn't seem angry or anything. Kyousuke just turned and looked back into the canyon.

"Why would you care?"

"Give me a break." Gajeel says straightforwardly, surprising Kyousuke. He sat down next to him on the edge of the canyon, tailor styled with his hands on his knees. Both of them shoot strange looks at each other before locking eyes for a second, and then Kyousuke just looked back down at the canyon. Gajeel wasn't stupid. He could easily tell that Kyousuke was getting vindictive over the D-Raided, and it wasn't going to be good for Kyousuke. "What's the point?" Gajeel says, catching Kyousuke's attention. "All you're doing is letting that rage eat you from the inside."

"And you know what it's like?"

"Yeah I do, and I learned my lesson a long time ago." Gajeel bluntly puts it. Kyousuke looked at him surprised. He didn't think Gajeel would be one to say that, but then he started looking at it differently.

"_Maybe he's right. I just don't know how to deal with this." _Kyousuke thought to himself. He felt guilty when he thought of it logically, but his inner hatred for the D-Raided was too powerful. It was difficult for Kyousuke to give up on something he had suffered through for years. Just then, Gajeel pulled out a flyer and handed it to Kyousuke.

"This will get that off your mind." Gajeel says. Kyousuke looked at it a bit, chuckling in response.

"You seriously got one of these?"

"Yeah, you got a problem with that?"

"No…I just…thought it was surprising." Kyousuke says calmly. Perhaps Gajeel wanted Kyousuke to go to the homecoming party that was on the flyer.

"Do you want me to go to this?"

"Yeah, and I'm coming with you." Gajeel states without question. He was fixed on this decision and there was no changing his mind.

"Really?" Kyousuke says confused. "You're…coming with me?"

"Yeah, I'm coming whether you like it or not." Gajeel said. His way of getting his point across made him seem somewhat rude. However, Kyousuke didn't see that way. He saw it as Gajeel caring for him. Maybe Gajeel did care about Kyousuke and this was one of his ways of showing it. Kyousuke liked the way he went about it. He felt like it meant he was more important, and it was truthful.

"Well then, I guess I'll have to find you a nice outfit." Kyousuke says, causing Gajeel to turn to him in question. Gajeel didn't plan on changing his outfit, but he had yet to see what Kyousuke was going to choose for him. Kyousuke smiled finally, having gotten somewhat over his hate streak. "I'm glad you're here to keep me on my toes." Kyousuke calmly says to Gajeel, who grins in response. They then just sat there, watching the sun make its way back down before they finally decided to head back. They had plans for tomorrow, and it was going to be more than Kyousuke, Dayton, or Roxanne ever expected.


	8. Chapter 8: Tension Tightens

Chapter 8: Tension Tightens

Today was the day of the homecoming party, which everyone was going to. Even Kyousuke and Gajeel were going, but only for the fireworks however (which happened to be late at night). They weren't interested in heading to the party that was being held there, and neither were Dayton, Natsu, Roxanne and Erza. They too had plans of their own. However, they weren't particularly excited about it, still feeling a bit bogged down from the previous day. The D-Raided had been on their minds the whole time, so they had trouble focusing in school. They could attack at any time, and with the school not being prepared for such, it felt strange going around the school. They just had to be on the defensive most of the time.

It currently was third hour. Dayton and Roxanne were in class, Erza and Natsu were in the cafeteria, and Kyousuke was running around the school with papers relating to his career.

"God damn, these papers are pointless." Kyousuke says to himself, holding six papers that were all the same. They asked you for so much information on just one paper; the other five were the exact same paper. "These teachers should really look into something called a 'Copy Machine'." He says to himself annoyed. This was the 5th set of these papers yet; he had to deal with the same issue previously. It turns out that he actually wasn't talking to himself, however, as Gajeel and Levy were seen accompanying him on his _school journey_. Gajeel had nothing better to do and Levy wanted to explore the school a bit more.

"This place is ridiculous." Gajeel says annoyed, having already seen the loads of filing cabinets and slots that hold different papers for different jobs. "Your principle can't even run the school right."

"She could never run the school right_."_Kyousuke explains. She was the worst of them all, being unable to properly run the school whilst punishing students for petty reasons. That was just the beginning of it. Walking around the school, he got to the last room and delivered the last paper. Then they all headed down the stairs, not sure of what to do next.

"So what should we do now?" Levy asks. She was interested in heading to the library, and coincidentally Kyousuke decided to go there as he could have peace and quiet.

"I might just head to the library."

"Really?!" Levy shouts, jumping with excitement. Her love for books and knowledge was something that would never cease to exist.

"Fine whatever." Gajeel says. He didn't care whether he was in the library or not, he just didn't want to be surrounded by people who were irritating. They got to the bottom of the stairs, which were located at the end of an aisle in the school. Kyousuke started to head towards the library, but suddenly stopped.

"_What the hell was that?"_Kyousuke thinks to himself. He heard something, but he couldn't pin-point it. Gajeel and Levy stopped right behind him, both confused.

"What's wrong?" Levy asks with a concerned tone.

"Do you hear that?" Kyousuke asks.

"Hear what?" Levy says confused. Gajeel, however, suddenly heard it too. It sounded like some kind of futuristic, electronic machine, and it was becoming louder.

"What the hell?" Gajeel says to himself confused. Both Kyousuke and Gajeel scanned the area to locate what the sound was, but they couldn't figure it out.

"I don't hear anything." Levy says with surprise, causing frustration within Kyousuke.

"Why is that?!"

"I don't know. Maybe it's because you and Gajeel are Dragon Slayers?!"

"Gajeel's a..." Kyousuke says before his attention turned to a new sound. It sounded like a large laser beam charging up, and Kyousuke realized that they were right in-front of it. He spun around and jumped towards Gajeel and Levy. "GET DOWN!" He screams, pushing them down into the ground. A large beam of blue energy suddenly came blasting through the wall, going all the way through the aisle into the library as it decimated the wall to bits. The power it contained was enough to kill the three, had they not dodged it. Just a few seconds later, Kyousuke looked up in surprise to see a massive hole in the school wall, and he was even more shocked to see a strange robotic device coming in through the hole. He could hear the screams of several people in the library, whilst a large pack of people formed as they ran from the library.

"If I can't trust them to do anything right, I'll do the crap myself." A strange voice says who was standing on top of a large hovercraft. It was circular in shape, and it was flying using strange looking objects located inside jars on the outside border of the hovercraft.

"_That's what must've generated the blast_." Kyousuke thought to himself calmly. He got up and turned his attention to the guy on top of the hovercraft, just as Gajeel and Levy did the same. This person had navy blue hair with long, spiked bangs. His outfit indicated that he was indeed a D-Raided member. It was different in a way, however, as it was more stylish and went down to his heels. He had an emotionless glare on his face with dull, grey eyes. He was difficult to read.

"Who is that?!" Levy asks shocked. Nobody answered, but Kyousuke kept shooting the guy a menacing glare. He suddenly held his hand out, and within it appeared the chokuto he used to kill the cocky guy. The chokuto was a weapon that he used quite often, reminiscent of an Iron Dragon Sword. He aimed the sword at the guy on the hovercraft, who turned to Kyousuke in response.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Kyousuke says truculently. He was just itching to take him down, and he could possibly have a chance. The guy refused to move a single muscle.

"I don't tell things in which you are not deserving of." The guy says with a very calm voice.

"Wh…what?"

"If you want to know, become one of us and information will be given to you." The guy explains. His speech patterns made him appear as if he had some sort of communicative deficiency. Kyousuke, Gajeel, nor Levy could get a good grip at his form of communication. "Wasting time on aspects of life in which are undeserving of life will result in failures of my own composition."

"Whatever." Kyousuke spats. The guy began to seriously irritate Gajeel and Kyousuke. He turned in curiosity and saw Dayton and Natsu already there, to whom Kyousuke shot a glare at. He didn't want anyone else involved, especially them.

"It's them again!" Dayton points out, as the guy focused his attention on the two.

"So you're the kid the other members of a lower ranking encountered because of their ignorance? It's quite baffling to believe that someone of the ignorance and personality of you to be a dragon slayer." The guy explains. Neither Dayton nor Natsu could understand him; in fact, they were even more perplexed than Gajeel and Kyousuke.

"What the heck is this guy talking about?!" Natsu says confused; the guy turning away.

"I'll just explain it normally so you can understand me properly. **I'm here for the Aqueous Stone."**The guy explains, surprising both Dayton and Kyousuke.

"_Why the hell would he want the Aqueous Stone?!"_Kyousuke thinks to himself shocked. "_That stone can only be used by a Dragon Slayer who controls water!"_

"That can't be right!" Levy says shocked, causing both Gajeel and Kyousuke to turn to her in shock.

"What do you mean?!" Gajeel and Kyousuke say in sync.

"The Aqueous Stone is a stone that can only be used by a Water Dragon Slayer, yet it disappeared from our world ages ago. I never expected it to be here." Levy says in disbelief. The guy eavesdropped on their conversation, but didn't care to store in any information having already known about it. He looked at Natsu and Dayton with an emotionless expression on his face.

"I'll discard of you unworthy humans and be on my way."

"Oh yeah?! I'd like to see you try!" Natsu shouted angrily, instantly attacking without any strategy. He jumped up in the air with his fists engulfed in flames, ready for anything.

"Idiot!" Kyousuke shouts angrily, watching as Natsu hits an invisible wall on the hovercraft. The impact caused the wall to ripple, just as it shoots Natsu back in the direction he flew in from.

"What the hell?!" Gajeel says surprised, watching as Natsu was shot back like a slingshot. Dayton jumped behind him and managed to catch him. However, he couldn't resist the amount of force being applied and slid back with Natsu in the process.

"Are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." Natsu says, getting up along with Dayton as they both stare at the guy sternly.

"It's not surprising that a being of a lower intelligence didn't care to observe and notice the immense amount of magical distortion within this magic replicator." He says calmly, angering Natsu. "I take it that you have a very high amount of energy compared to almost anyone on this entire planet."

"I've got a lot more coming too!" Natsu says angrily, attacking recklessly once more.

A magic replicating shield is a shield that absorbs the amount of magic used in a certain attack and repels it back at the opponent. Therefore, the effects of the shield are quite drastic when someone as powerful as Natsu attacks it.

Natsu failed many more times, being blasted back on each attempt. On his last attack, he once again was repelled and slid back to Dayton, becoming frustrated in the process.

"Dammit!" Natsu complains. He still didn't understand why his attacks weren't penetrating the shield.

"Pointless motives for a pointless purpose. Just be gone and you won't need suffering." The guy calmly suggests. He held no sort of emotional response when it came to human life; just the idea of life and death was all he saw. Gajeel also would've attacked, but he refrained himself from doing so since he knew that if he had tried, it would just repel him back too. He tried to come up with a strategy to get past the shield, but it wasn't apparent just yet. Dayton on the other hand, decided to do something himself. He spun around and shot for the library, knowing that the location of the Aqueous Stone was somewhere inside the room. The guy instantly noticed his getaway attempt and prepared to stop him at all costs. "You can't get away from me." He says calmly. He held his hand out in-front of him, which in turn caused blue energy to gather in-front of the shield. Upon gathering enough energy, the guy clenched his hand into a fist and suddenly the large mass of energy was fired like a laser. Everyone watched in shock as the beam headed straight for Dayton, unable to do anything themselves. Determined to get to the stone first, Dayton immersed himself in his Lava Dragon Slayer scales, preparing to catch the large beam that was flying towards him.

"_Is he really trying to catch the laser?!"_Levy wonders in shock, watching as the laser nearly touches him. Dayton does indeed catch the laser, spinning around with it in his grasp and launching it back in the same direction. The guy widened his eyes in shock, realizing the beam was heading straight for him. It collided with his shield and resulted in a massive explosion. In that time, Dayton grabbed Natsu's arm, pulling him out of harm's way as they went for the library. On the other hand, Gajeel grabbed Kyousuke and Levy and jumped up to the second floor, instantly turning left and storming away as the explosion obliterated that section of the school. People that were outside of the school suddenly started screaming and running away as the explosion took place. They had to dodge bricks and concrete that would've crushed them otherwise.

As the chaos ensued, Dayton and Natsu sprinted through the library; the former searching for the stone like a computer scanning a hard-drive.

"We can't let him get that stone!" Dayton says, ordering Natsu to look for any secret rooms within the library. They both scrambled through many shelves of books in order to find a path to the stone. Getting through the library was sort of difficult, however, as there was a bunch of debris from the explosion. Upon pushing a wall in the library open, Natsu helplessly fell inside. Dayton overheard his screaming and ran to see that he had discovered a secret compartment leading to a secret room. He jumped in after Natsu had fell, neatly landing on the ground as Natsu flipped himself back onto his feet. They used their magic to light up the cave so they could see. "It should be down in here." Dayton assumes, running through the cave as Natsu followed from behind.

* * *

In the meantime, Erza and Roxanne ran into the area where the explosion occurred, only to find that no one was there.

"What on earth happened here?!" Erza says in shock. It was like a bomb had exploded in less than a half a mile radius. They both looked around, finding nothing that may lead them to the current situation. Noticing the library's condition, they ran in there to find out more about what's happening.

"It must be the D-Raided." Roxanne assumes, "They would be the only ones capable of doing this without being noticed."

"Check for anyone else that might be here!" Erza instructs, both of them splitting apart and searching for people. During their search, Roxanne stumbled upon the door that Natsu had opened earlier, only to be met with bafflement.

"_They're really here for that?"_Roxanne thinks to herself shocked. Erza suddenly appeared behind Roxanne, noticing the hole as well. "We need to find the ones who entered this hole!" Roxanne says, causing Erza to jump in and start searching herself. Roxanne followed her from behind. As she entered, she heard a laser beam suddenly go off and blast a section of the library apart once more; closing off the pathway into the cave. "They're coming after us!" Roxanne informs as they stormed down the cave.

Just outside of the cave, the guy was standing in disappointment. For some strange reason, he seemed reluctant to get off the hovercraft. Having known of the cave beforehand, he realized that his second attack blocked the opening to the cave.

"Looks like I'll have to make an event that gives me the advantage in the fight." The guy explains, preparing to blast the cave opening to pieces. He did indeed, and it was enough to vaporize some of the remaining debris. As he was about to enter the opening, he turns to see Kyousuke there with his chokuto. He was running around the hovercraft with the chokuto in hand, stopping and preparing to swing the sword at the guy. "You know that's point..." The guy says before being whiplashed by Kyousuke. He had a stream of electricity attached to his chokuto as he was whipping it around at the shield. Whilst doing that, he also used his electricity as a grappling hook; connecting it to the shield and swinging himself from place to place. The guy looked at Kyousuke intrigued. "This is certainly interesting. How is the force of my shield not repelling you?" The guy asks. Kyousuke didn't respond, only continuing to lash at the shield. Eventually, it was enough to cause a crack to appear on it.

"_**Dammit!"**_The guy thinks to himself frustrated. He started to panic as he realized Kyousuke was gaining the upper-hand.

"_His shield isn't fast enough to take in the magic energy and repel me back when using this whip."_Kyousuke thinks to himself confidently, increasing the size of the crack in the shield. The time-lapse between Kyousuke's attack and the contact with the shield is too short for the shield to properly react. Therefore, since he doesn't have to deal with the shield's effects, Kyousuke's on the winning side. At one point, however, Kyousuke lashed at the shield and his whip snapped, causing a magical defect as Kyousuke was repelled back. He was flung off the ground into a glass window, shattering it to bits whilst flying outside.

"Did you forget that the replicating shield can store magic energy in small bits you human being? I'll give it to you that you're intelligent, but not as intelligent as I am whose superior intelligence shall mark the outcome of events in this battle." The guy explains. Kyousuke angrily picked himself up; covered in glass shards as he came back into the library.

"You need a certain amount of magic to repel it against me, so it's not useful if I can break it beforehand." Kyousuke explains confidently. The other guy knew that he was right, and a certain instinct within him told him to retreat, knowing that he would lose. His intelligence, however, wouldn't retreat.

"_**Retreat now! Save yourself from your inevitable defeat!**_" The guy panics to himself.

"_No, don't leave. Kill this worthless, un-intelligent waste of life."_He thinks to himself once more. He started to lose control, eventually firing a laser beam at Kyousuke without even realizing it.

"**DIE!"**The guy screams in a monstrous voice; Kyousuke widening his eyes in shock.

"_What the hell is wrong with this person?!"_Kyousuke thinks to himself shocked. He saw the laser beam heading straight for him, warding it off and sending it flying into the mountains as a defense mechanism. The guy was standing there as one of his eyes gradually got darker with time. Kyousuke couldn't figure out what was happening to him. He stood there like a statue, frozen solid as Kyousuke cautiously approached the guy. There was still a crack in the shield, and it was actually becoming larger as the guy's eye got darker. Suddenly his eye became completely black, and he started laughing in this low pitched, monstrous voice.

"**HOW PATHETIC; I CAN'T EVEN LIVE ANYMORE! LIFE IS A FORM OF MENTAL DESTRUCTION THAT HUMANS DECIEVE THEMSELVES TO!"**The guy screamed. It seemed like he lost all sanity; uncontrollably yelling out various things as his voice only became worse. Kyousuke, about to attack, looked up to see Gajeel in-front of him. He was about to witness Gajeel's Dragon Slayer magic for the first time. His arm turned black and extended into an iron club whilst intentionally increasing its length. He hit the crack in the shield with excessive force, completely shattering the shield as the guy just stood there in response. He froze like a statue with his jaw dropped, standing there as Kyousuke and Gajeel looked at him with confusion and wonder. Suddenly, the guy started to expand like a balloon, both his eyes turning completely black.

"What the hell?!" Gajeel says in disgust, watching as the guy explodes like a balloon. A gushy, black liquid emerged from his body as it was sent flying across the library. It smelled horrible and it burned like acid. Gajeel and Kyousuke jumped out of way in order to not get contaminated. As it splattered amongst the floor, the hovercraft exploded and everything inside it fell to the ground. They watched as strange organs burned into nothing. Some of them weren't organs, however, and were actually stones. Gajeel and Kyousuke watched in surprise as the acid disintegrated into nothing, burning the carpet in the process. Kyousuke got up and went to the two stones on the ground, picking them up and examining them as Gajeel walked up behind him. One of the stones was white and the other stone was a sky blue.

"These stones can only be used by dragon slayers." Kyousuke explains to Gajeel, who was looking at them curiously. "I've never seen them used like that before."

"Who knows what other crap they have." Gajeel says. Finding stones in such an incident was really unusual.

"Are you guys alright?!" Levy says; who happened to be coming into the library. Gajeel and Kyousuke turned their attention to her as Kyousuke walked up to her.

"We're fine," Kyousuke says calmly. Levy didn't initially believe that, however, seeing the glass in Kyousuke's skin.

"What the heck happened to you?!" She asks concerned, focused on the broken glass in Kyousuke's body. Gajeel saw the broken glass too, and was quite surprised to see him walking around in such a state. Kyousuke pulled out the glass in his hands as some blood squirted out, causing Levy to jump a bit. Getting rid of the glass shards, he handed the two stones to Levy, who looked at them in wonder.

"Can you find out what types of stones these are?" Kyousuke asks calmly. He knew she was smart enough to do something like that, and she would enjoy it too.

"Uh...Of course!" She says, being startled at the question. She turned around to see the library in shambles, which only caused more problems.

"They just had to destroy the library." She says upsettingly; Kyousuke and Gajeel shaking their heads in response. Levy put the stones in her pocket, being more concerned about the situation. Kyousuke started walking to Gajeel. However, he suddenly stopped when he saw Erza and Roxanne coming out of the hole in the cave. They looked at Kyousuke in shock as they took notice of his condition.

"What happened here?!" Erza asks. Seeing Kyousuke in this state was enough to bring up numerous questions.

"A member of the D-Raided decided to raid our school." Kyousuke explains. There were some glass shards in his back as well, and they caused him pain. Roxanne was shocked herself, but already knew that it was the D-Raided.

"I thought so." Roxanne assures.

"Where is he now?" Erza asks calmly. Kyousuke shrugged his shoulders in response.

"He's dead."

"Dead?!" Erza says disturbed. "You didn't kill him, did you?!"

"No, he exploded into acidic, black gush." Kyousuke says calmly. Erza couldn't entirely believe him.

"Is this true?" Erza asks Gajeel, who seemed more relaxed.

"Yeah, he isn't lying." Gajeel assures. Erza and Roxanne both became perplexed; the idea was weird enough as it is.

"He...exploded into black gush?"

"See the holes in the floor." Kyousuke points out, pointing to a hole that was made from the acidic properties of the gush. This was evidence to his claim, which was true.

"How unusual." Erza says calmly.

While it was strange that he exploded into black gush, the guy losing control was even weirder. Kyousuke kept thinking about it; the organs, the stones, the hovercraft. It was too confusing. Erza and Roxanne decided to talk to Levy about the situation and look for Natsu and Dayton, not knowing their whereabouts. As they did that, Kyousuke thought deeply about what just happened.

"_What the hell?! He explodes into black gush, and the organs and stones. What the hell was he?!"_Kyousuke thinks to himself disturbed. He started to turn around to look at Gajeel, but a sharp piercing pain shot through him, causing him to jump a bit. "I didn't think I would get this injured." Kyousuke says, holding his arm and breathing heavily. He was blasted back quite a bit, so it would be no surprise if one were to find glass shards halfway through his body, despite how scary that would be. Gajeel saw Kyousuke and felt inner concern arise within him. He calmly walked up to Kyousuke and put a hand on his shoulder, gently moving around the glass shards so he could remove them without ripping Kyousuke's skin apart. Blood dripped from his damaged coat and back as Gajeel carefully removed the glass shards. He eventually got down to the last piece, pulling it out gently and throwing it on the ground. Kyousuke felt relief once again. He was happy to have someone helping him out; typically he was always alone.

"Thanks." Kyousuke says calmly.

"It's nothing." Gajeel responds. He then helped Kyousuke get moving, and once he did, they both left the library to find out what was going on. Surely there won't be a homecoming now, or will there?


	9. Chapter 9: I Can Trust Him

Chapter 9: I Can Trust Him

Despite the school going through the horrific destruction of the D-Raided, the school was still hosting the homecoming party. It sounded strange, but the principle insisted. Speaking of the principle, her stupidity led her to punish the wizards who were involved in the recent fight, which was a mistake on her part. The three Earthland wizards sat back in disappointment, confusion, and annoyance as the principle lectured the other three.

"I've already told you millions of times not to use magic so horrendously! Even you Roxanne; I thought you would know better." She says angrily. Erza was confused, but she wasn't rebellious in such a way. Gajeel couldn't care less of what she had to say and Natsu was baffled. Dayton and Roxanne were both troubled by her anger and Kyousuke already couldn't stand her.

"We didn't even do anything! They came and attacked us!" Roxanne explains. The principle ultimately refused to listen.

"Excuses…Excuses…Excuses." She rambles on. Dayton kept complaining to her over the issue; it was probably one of the only times that he was actually innocent.

"Dayton, you have no say in the matter. You always use your magic recklessly."

"I didn't do this!" Dayton complains. He couldn't understand why she wouldn't believe him. Of course he got in trouble a lot, but he wouldn't have caused this much damage. Okay, he did accidentally blow up the stairs when throwing back the laser, but that wasn't the point.

"I know it's difficult to believe him, but he's innocent this time." Roxanne says, defending Dayton. The principle still refused to listen to her.

"Roxanne, you just had to follow their example and break the rules, didn't you?" The principle questions upsetting Roxanne as a result. This was probably the first time that she would've been angry with her.

"_To think our principle would be so oblivious." _Roxanne thinks to herself. Natsu was about to go fight the principle, but Erza just grabbed his vest and held him back as Natsu tried to break free.

"Forget it Natsu." Erza says calmly. She felt that there was no reason for them to intervene. "We don't need to get involved in this."

"But Erza!"

"NATSU!" Erza yells angrily, causing Natsu to instantly come to terms with her.

"Yes ma'am." Natsu says fearfully. Dayton and Roxanne continued to argue with the principle as Kyousuke just sat back and watched.

"_This principle is such a dumbass. Why the hell do they choose to listen to her anyways? Unlike these other wizards, the principle holds no skill in defense." _Kyousuke thinks to himself annoyed. He shot a look at Gajeel whilst the argument continued, noticing how calm he appeared to be. It was a strange feeling; he was quite difficult to read and he resembled himself in some way. Kyousuke suddenly snapped out of it when the principle angrily pointed at Gajeel, Erza and Natsu. She was far from happy.

"You three just made things worse! You are why these three are acting this way and why this happened."

"Why you…" Natsu says angrily. The principle only caused Natsu to flare up as she stupidly put the blame on them. Gajeel shot her a look of disgust and ignored her every word. Erza, on the other hand, couldn't bring herself to argue with the principle because it was her school and her rules. Because of this, she was willing to accept her punishment for what had happened; despite not being the cause of such an incident. She started to formally get down on her knees, but suddenly stopped once Kyousuke decided to intervene.

"You chose to let them stay here in the first place. I don't understand why you would try to put them in our position when they could easily obliterate you." Kyousuke says calmly. The principle angrily turned her attention to him.

"What was that?!"

"If they weren't here as support, we could be dead. You couldn't even protect yourself from a fly and their power is more than enough for defensive purposes. Instead of getting angry at them, maybe you should thank them for their support and start repairs for the school." Kyousuke suggests. Everyone looked at Kyousuke surprised; they didn't expect him to retort with such a good argument. While Erza didn't necessarily agree on telling her that she could be obliterated, she did otherwise agree with him. The principle could no longer deal with the situation and began to walk away.

"Alright then. Do whatever; I don't care! Just leave me alone!" She says angrily, stomping off in a fit as everyone else smiles in delight.

"You didn't have to tell her that she could be obliterated." Roxanne says calmly. She was a bit surprised by his blunt form of communication.

"Well it's true." Kyousuke says. He appeared to be more relaxed than usual, probably due to his injuries. Also, knowing that he eliminated a member, he felt some sort of accomplishment. Outside of the group, it turns out that Levy decided to do research on the stones she was given. She used a map and located a nearby library; the place she went to conduct her studies. She and the librarian got along well, which made it even easier to gather such information. There also were computers, but she was clueless on how to operate them. As she did her research, the same six wizards were still in the hallway. Natsu and Dayton soon rushed down to the cafeteria together, ready to raid the cafeteria before anyone could even blink. As they did that, the other wizards stayed behind. Kyousuke's wounds weren't bleeding anymore, but he needed to sit down. He uncomfortably got down on the ground and leaned against the wall, having accidentally painted a blood streak on the wall. The D-Raided entered his mind once more, continuing to bother him as he recovered. Gajeel could tell that he couldn't get them off his mind and he himself was particularly annoyed by that. Erza and Roxanne also noticed his expression, but only assumed that it was because of the injuries that he underwent during the battle. It would take time for them to heal, especially since there wasn't anyone there who knew healing magic. Roxanne decided to head back home and get ready for the party tonight. Surprisingly enough, the school's fireworks were pretty impressive, so it was worth the view.

"I'm going to find Natsu." Erza says. She then walked off and headed for the cafeteria as Roxanne followed from behind. With them gone, all who was left were Gajeel and Kyousuke. Gajeel didn't want to figure out where Levy went to, so he decided to stay with Kyousuke. He had his arms crossed while staring at Kyousuke; thoughts running through his head. Why did the D-Raided affect him so much? There had to be a reason behind it; it couldn't have been out of spite. He then watched as Kyousuke started moving once again.

"I'm going after them." Kyousuke says, getting up off the ground. He was talking about the D-Raided, and his obsession for revenge was starting to control him. This was the last straw; he couldn't take it anymore. With the D-Raided targeting the school, now would be the perfect chance. As he was about to leave, Gajeel grabbed the hood of his jacket and pulled him back. Kyousuke slipped off his feet and helplessly fell to the ground whilst Gajeel tightly held onto the jacket. "What the hell are you doing?!" Kyousuke shouts annoyed. He tried breaking free, but Gajeel's iron grip was too much for Kyousuke. Gajeel then just dragged him along the ground as he left the school through the hole in the wall. He remembered where Kyousuke lived and he started heading for his house, dragging a helpless Kyousuke along with him. "This is ridiculous! Let go of me!" Kyousuke angrily demands, trying to break free once more.

"Quit whining!" Gajeel shouts in annoyance. Kyousuke then attempted to pry his fingers off; further annoying Gajeel.

"_He won't beat me like this!" _Kyousuke thinks to himself confidently. He was determined to go after the D-Raided, and he wasn't about to let Gajeel stop him. Kyousuke managed to get one of his fingers pried off, but in response Gajeel painfully jabbed it into one of Kyousuke's fingers. It was quite painful, but Kyousuke nevertheless kept trying to break free. During their scuffle, people watched in surprise as their attention was set on the blood streaks left in the grass.

"Quit messing with my fingers!" Gajeel angrily demands, turning the argument into a physical fight. He was about to swing him around, until Kyousuke started to forcefully remove his hand from the jacket.

"What the hell is your problem?! Apparently it's with me going after the D-Raided, is it?!" Kyousuke questions, only annoying Gajeel in the process. The struggle soon ended up on the grass as they fiercely rolled around, trying to either break free or stop the other from squirming. Eventually, Gajeel couldn't take anymore. He grabbed Kyousuke, pushed him up using his knee, and put him on his shoulder. At this point, Kyousuke gave up on his attempt to break free.

"There, now quit whining!" Gajeel orders, having felt relief. He carried Kyousuke all the way back to his house, ignoring everyone's stares and comments on the situation. Kyousuke could only look at Gajeel's back the entire time, as doing anything else was painful. Eventually, Gajeel got to Kyousuke's garage, noticing a small, black box on the side of it. He walked up to it and flipped its cover open as he met face-to-face with a number pad. There was some sort of code that allowed access into the garage, and he wasn't about to let Kyousuke enter it. Kyousuke would've taken the chance to go after the D-Raided had Gajeel done that. "Hey! What's the code?" Gajeel asks. Kyousuke refused to answer, only for Gajeel to demand an answer. "Hey! Answer the question!"

"Alright, fine!" Kyousuke says annoyed. "The code is 2672."

"2672." Gajeel says calmly, entering the code in the digit pad. The garage door then opened, allowing him to walk in and shut it from the inside. He went into the living room and dropped Kyousuke on the couch, instantly heading into the kitchen and getting a bunch of food. With the food, he walked back to the couch and dropped them on the coffee table they were sitting at. Kyousuke gave up on trying to get away, instead deciding to hear out Gajeel's reasoning behind his actions. Gajeel instantly started devouring metal bowls as Kyousuke looked at him appalled.

"You're eating my dishes!"

"I gotta eat something!" Gajeel says annoyed. He could eat and drink more than metal, but he preferred metal over anything else (it was his own element after all). Kyousuke just let him eat the bowls as he thought about what happened. He couldn't believe he lost to Gajeel during their scuffle, and it was a bit shocking.

"The first time I ever lost was to you." Kyousuke says calmly. Gajeel stared at him with a perplexed expression as he continued to eat the bowls.

"Huh?"

"It's nothing." Kyousuke replies. He watched as Gajeel ate the metal bowls, suddenly getting lost in such a strange thing before remembering what was actually on his mind. "So what were you going to talk to me about?" Kyousuke calmly asks. Gajeel stopped eating the bowls and answered his question.

"You're gonna go after the D-Raided?" Gajeel asks calmly. His expression didn't give off a good vibe. "You're a moron."

"What?!" Kyousuke angrily shouts. He was both angry and confused; wondering why Gajeel of all people would say such a thing.

"Go after them and you'll just get yourself killed." Gajeel says, provoking Kyousuke as he was ready to argue on the spot.

"How the hell should you know that?! You don't even know who they really are!"

"Just listen to yourself; they've got you hook-line and sinker." Gajeel explains. Kyousuke couldn't stand hearing that; the last thing he wanted to be was a pawn of his own nemesis. "All that hatred is because of them, and they know you're gonna head back."

"If you think you know so much about them, then what the hell should I do?! They can come here and eliminate everyone within seconds, and you expect me to just sit here and do nothing?!"

"If you're going to go after them, you're not gonna go alone." Gajeel says strictly. Kyousuke started to argue with him once more, but soon analyzed his last statement, catching on to what he meant.

"You're coming with me?" Kyousuke says slightly annoyed.

"Yeah." Gajeel says. Kyousuke suddenly sighed out of disgust.

"What?" Kyousuke says in disbelief. "I thought someone like you wouldn't care about helping me."

"Look, you can go out and get yourself killed, or I can come with you." Gajeel explains annoyed. He wasn't going to explain any further, and Kyousuke was just disgusted. Shaking his head, he threw himself onto the couch as he stressfully put his head into his hands. Kyousuke's emotions were too complex to properly explain; he felt torn between what Gajeel had said. Gajeel said he was going to help him but exploited one of Kyousuke's weaknesses, causing Kyousuke to wonder if he could be trusted. At the same time, Kyousuke could understand the point he was getting at, but didn't understand why he was doing this. He couldn't properly deal with the issue at hand. Gajeel looked up and Kyousuke's frustration. He could tell that Kyousuke was being very emotional. However, he also could sense that same inner evil within him, and that's why he was willing to help.

"Hey, pull yourself together." Gajeel says encouragingly, putting a hand on Kyousuke's shoulder and turning him towards himself. "Just forget the D-Raided crap." Gajeel suggests. Kyousuke looked at him with surprise in his eyes. "You think you know what you're doing but you're just leading yourself into a trap." Gajeel explains once more. Kyousuke sat there, staring into Gajeel's red eyes and observing their bloody color. He was a difficult person to understand, but Kyousuke felt relatable in this aspect. Kyousuke soon realized that he was just as much of an outcast as he was. Upon this realization, he sighed as he was no longer mad at Gajeel.

"Fine then." Kyousuke finalizes, wanting to end the conversation. There was nothing worse than talking about his feelings to others; he absolutely despised it. Not one person he felt has helped in any way, so he deliberately hid his feelings. Gajeel had gotten out a bag of sliced bread from the fridge, so Kyousuke ate a piece to calm down.

* * *

Time eventually passed and now it was night-time; the time when the fireworks would go off. It was a time Kyousuke should enjoy for once rather than ignore. He and Gajeel were at a valley, sitting down on a hill with a bag of metal, food, and an absolutely perfect view of the sky. They couldn't possibly get a better view of the fireworks from where they were at. Kyousuke was sitting with his hands together, staring at the ground as Gajeel lied next to him, chewing a piece of iron. Kyousuke had never done this before; it felt unusual to him and he wasn't happy about it anymore. He'd rather be somewhere else were no one would disturb him. Gajeel kept glancing at Kyousuke from time to time, noticing how unhappy he was. He decided to do this in the first place because he was bored, but now it was focused on Kyousuke for some reason. Maybe it was because he liked him. Kyousuke, on the other-hand, was obviously not happy

"_Why is he doing this? Even for me, this is strange." _Kyousuke thought to himself. It started to appear as if he was lonely, even though he questioned it. Kyousuke got up and prepared to leave, coming up with a ruse to prevent Gajeel from stopping him. "I'll be right back; I need to talk a walk around." Kyousuke lies, walking behind Gajeel as he prepared to leave. He was going to ditch Gajeel in order to be by himself. Kyousuke felt a bit guilty, but his pain was too much to ignore. Gajeel, however, grabbed his wrist and refused to let go. Kyousuke turned to look at Gajeel surprised, being caught off-guard. "Gajeel?!" Kyousuke says as Gajeel finished up a piece of iron. He pulled Kyousuke down onto the ground, right next to him, relaxing his arm around Kyousuke.

"Don't be ridiculous. We're watching this together." Gajeel says calmly. A grin came across his face as Kyousuke looked up and noticed it; it actually seemed like a genuine smile. Gajeel did this deliberately, knowing it would take Kyousuke's mind off of stress. He must've not known it right away, but Kyousuke was being very emotional. However, he felt really warm on the inside.

"_Wow…this feeling…?" _Kyousuke thinks to himself. It was unusual, but Kyousuke seemed to enjoy it somewhat. They had no connections except that they were Dragon Slayers, but they had yet to find out more. Kyousuke suddenly felt immersed within comfort, so he moved his head and lied on Gajeel's chest. Some people would've thought they were dating had they been seen this way, but that wasn't the case. Gajeel felt happy that Kyousuke wasn't so stressed out; they both could enjoy themselves for once. They both lied there, looking into the sky as the fireworks were set off. Kyousuke felt like something was telling him to open up to Gajeel, and that he could trust him. He could be the person Kyousuke needed in his life. They both lied together without moving a single muscle.

Eventually the fireworks ended and the two Dragon Slayers were sleeping. In the forest appeared Levy, who happened to be walking back after doing her research on the stones; if she found any information. She had no idea where they were, and she was starting to freak out.

"_When I find him, I'm gonna kill him!" _Levy complains. Supposedly, she requested that he meet her at the house when she was done with her research. Since he obviously wasn't there, she was pretty annoyed. Running through the forest, she eventually ran past the two dragon slayers and barely caught notice of them, stopping and turning to see them passed out. She saw the way they were sleeping and became surprised. She wasn't angry or jealous, just surprised. She didn't expect to see Gajeel of all people doing this, but it made her smile. "_Well this is surprising." _She thinks to herself full with surprise and delight. Her anger disappeared as something else popped into her mind. She tried waking him up, but he didn't respond. Then she tried picking him up, but that didn't work either; he was way too heavy for her. Of course he wasn't fat, but he was much bigger than her. "Gajeel! Wake up already!" Levy says in annoyance. During the situation, she walked backwards and accidentally tripped off the side of the valley, taking Gajeel down with her. There was another valley below the one they were on, and that's where they were landing. "_GAJEEL!" _Levy shouts in shock. Gajeel woke up and didn't have enough time to realize that he was about to fall on her. Luckily, she rolled out of the way as he hit the ground where she would've been squashed.

"Agh! What the hell?!" Gajeel says annoyed, getting up and looking at Levy, who smiled back apologetically. "What are you doing here?" Gajeel asks, only to upset Levy.

"What do you mean _what am I doing here? _You were supposed to meet me back at the house and you weren't there!" Levy complains. She sounded like a spoiled child, but Gajeel did give her a hard time quite often. Gajeel just gave her a perplexed look.

"I thought you could get back all by yourself!" Gajeel says annoyed, missing the point. He didn't realize the bag of iron and food heading straight for him right away, but he saw it in time to catch the bag. He then got a piece of iron out of it, eating while annoying Levy even more. Kyousuke suddenly woke up and got up, walking over to the edge to see Gajeel and Levy on the ground.

"How did you end up there?" Kyousuke calmly asks, as he watches Levy and Gajeel scuffle. His question didn't get answered, but he didn't care. All he cared about now was how he had a friend he could finally trust, and how he would be the one helping him take down the D-Raided.


	10. Chapter 10: Another Wizard & Exceeds

Chapter 10: Another Wizard and Exceeds

After yesterday, the students were told not to come to school because of repairs, which made no sense because they still hosted the homecoming party despite the damage. With that in the way, Dayton and Roxanne sat outside along with Natsu and Erza with absolutely nothing to do. Dayton was sitting on a bench, Roxanne was lying against a tree next to the bench, and Natsu and Erza were just standing there. They could go wherever they wanted, but they just didn't have the motivation to do anything.

"Our principle is so out of it!" Dayton says annoyed, being irritated by her stupidity. For once Roxanne and Erza agreed, which wasn't surprising because everyone would agree. It was probably Kyousuke pointing out how incorrect she was that eventually caused them to realize that she was an idiot.

"If our master was that foolish, I'm not sure he would be here right now." Erza says calmly, catching Roxanne's attention.

"What's your master like?" Roxanne wonders. She always wondered what life in a guild would be like.

"Well, he's much older and very powerful, as all leaders should be. He's also very wise and protective of all of us." Erza explains. Roxanne didn't quite grasp how much older their master was, but had yet to find out. They were all sitting there quietly whilst having nothing to do, eventually getting sick of waiting, preparing to leave.

"That's it!" Dayton says annoyed, getting up impatiently. "I'm outta here."

"Yeah, me too." Natsu says bored. They both prepare to leave with Roxanne and Erza following along, that is, until someone else got their attention.

"Natsu!" A young girl shouts, catching both Natsu and Erza's attention. They both look behind them to see a blonde-haired girl running towards them in relief, wearing a blue and white outfit with keys on the side of her blue skirt. Natsu suddenly began to smile in relief as he ran to her in joy. Erza also walked up with a surprised expression on her face.

"It's Lucy!" She says surprised. She too ran to Lucy with Natsu as Roxanne and Dayton looked in confusion, both walking to her slowly. Lucy and Natsu eventually caught up with each other and had a small reunion as Lucy hugged Natsu in relief.

"I'm so glad that I found you." Lucy says relieved, hugging Natsu tightly as he openly accepts it. Erza managed to catch up with them as an even brighter smile appeared on Lucy's face.

"It's good to see you again Lucy." Erza says calmly. Dayton and Roxanne eventually appear behind them as Lucy looks up at them, having a perplexed expression on her face.

"Who..are they?" Lucy asks calmly; the two staring at her as Erza smiles.

"We'll have to get you updated on the situation here." Erza informs, Lucy looking at her perplexed.

In time, they were all grouped around the bench, Lucy sitting on the bench as she was updated with everything that's been happening. She was staring at Dayton and Roxanne with a curious expression on her face.

"So let me get this straight; you just disappeared and ended up here with Dayton and Roxanne?" She articulates as Erza nods in response.

"I don't know how, but were not the only ones." Erza explains. Lucy shot her a surprised look.

"You're not?"

"Gajeel and Levy also managed to get sent here as well." Erza explains once more. Lucy figured, but she did wonder where the rest of her guild-mates were. She was actually more relieved that Levy, her best friend, was okay.

"I hope everyone else is alright." Lucy says calmly. She was a bit worried herself, for she cared a lot for her guild-mates.

"Don't worry! They're alright." Natsu reassures. He could never lose confidence in his guild-mates, for he knew that Fairy Tail couldn't be taken out so easily. It was this notion, along with many others that contributed to his strength. Lucy looked at him and couldn't help but agree on that, despite second thoughts still floating about. Dayton looked at Lucy with a smile on his face, for he had some very weird questions to ask her.

"So can you use magic too?" He asks curiously.

"Well yeah. Is that important or something?"

"Don't mind him." Roxanne says while pushing Dayton away. He seemed a bit irritated as she began explaining. "In this world having magic is a rarity, so knowing if you have it can be very important." Roxanne explains to Lucy. "From what I've observed, it seems that you all possess innate magical abilities."

"That's correct." Erza assures, as Roxanne looks at her surprised. What a shocking discovery. There were only so many wizards in this world; being one was considered a gift. There weren't many people with this gift, however.

"It's kind of hard to believe." Roxanne says in disbelief. Erza could see where she was coming from; with great power comes a great price. "The only people I've known with vast magical power are Dayton and Kyousuke." Roxanne explains. It then occurred to Erza that they go and update Kyousuke and Gajeel on the current situation.

"Perhaps we should go inform the other three of Lucy's arrival." Erza suggests. She couldn't stand just sitting there with nothing to do, so this was the perfect chance to do something. Erza also was interested in the D-Raided, and she needed someone else to talk to. With that, they all got up and headed for Kyousuke's house. Lucy couldn't help but wonder who this Kyousuke was, and so she decided to ask.

"Okay, so who's this Kyousuke you're talking about?" Lucy wonders. Roxanne prepared to explain before Dayton cut her off.

"He's mister _you'll never understand me_!" Dayton spats while making a strange face. "He's just jealous of me cause' I'm a dragon slayer!"

"Says the one who lost to the _Dragon Slayer_." Roxanne recounts, annoying Dayton.

"Hey!"

"Whatever." Roxanne says irked, turning to Lucy as she stares at them confused.

"So I'm guessing he's like Natsu and Gray, is he?" Lucy questions. Roxanne and Dayton gave her a perplexed expression as Erza calmly replies.

"More precisely like Gajeel, but close. They're practically one and the same." Erza corrects. They all started walking down the street Kyousuke's house was on.

"Who's Gray?" Dayton wonders. His expression was reminiscent of Natsu's when the latter's mind was blank. It made Lucy giggle before replying.

"Gray's a wizard at Fairy Tail." Lucy explains. "He uses Ice Magic."

"That makes sense. Fire and ice don't mix." Roxanne explains. Neither one of them noticed the shocked expression slapped onto Dayton's face. A wizard with glossy, silver, spiky hair appeared within his mind. He saved him on top of a large glacier, both of them looking down at the enemies who approached them. Shock started to overwhelm him, but before anyone could notice, he took a deep breath and relaxed. He looked to his left and saw Kyousuke's house.

"We're here." Erza informs the group as they start walking into Kyousuke's driveway. They silently walked up to his door and just stood there. Roxanne rang the doorbell and they waited for someone to come. From the outside they could hear a loud, metallic ruckus coming from his garage, but someone came and answered the door before they could figure out what it was.

"Huh? What the hell are you doing here?" Kyousuke wonders, looking at the group with an irritated expression. He didn't want everyone coming into his house.

"We need to discuss some important matters." Erza calmly states. Kyousuke caught notice of Lucy, and decided some of them in his house.

"Roxanne and Erza, along with the new girl can come in through the garage." Kyousuke says, simply shutting the door and leaving.

"What about us?!" Natsu complains while Lucy gives him a surprised look.

"I wonder why he's not letting Natsu in." Lucy wonders.

"Oh, only if you knew of their relationship, you'd understand." Roxanne explained.

"I should've figured." Lucy responded. This was nothing new to her, just your typical Dragon Slayer disagreements here and there. Roxanne turned and headed for the garage door, inputting the code to gain access inside for she had already knew the code. Upon entering it, the garage door slowly opened, revealing Gajeel scarfing down pieces of metal from a large pile next to him. Roxanne, Erza, and Lucy; being surprised to see him out here, came in to talk before heading inside. Natsu and Dayton had troubles of their own to deal with.

"Have you been staying here with Kyousuke this whole time?" Erza curiously asks. Gajeel continued to eat the metal that was gathered up in the pile in-front of him.

"What do you think?"

"I see." She calmly replies. Erza &amp; Lucy then decided to enter the house while Roxanne just stood there, losing herself once again. She continued to stare at Gajeel while he kept eating the metal. He looked up at her and suddenly became annoyed by her staring.

"What's up with you?" He wonders annoyed. Roxanne suddenly snapped out of her thoughts and shook her head abruptly.

"Oh...ugh...sorry; I lost myself a bit."

"Huh?" Gajeel says confused, staring at her as she prepares to enter Kyousuke's house. Before doing so, however, she turned around to see Dayton and Natsu banging on an invisible barrier connected to Kyousuke's garage. She became surprised when she could see them talking, but couldn't hear anything they were saying.

"Wow, that's funny." Roxanne says while giggling on the inside. Gajeel turned to see Natsu and Dayton banging on the invisible wall, only for a grin to appear on his face as a result.

"What a bunch of idiots." Gajeel comments while chuckling a bit. Natsu says something on the outside in annoyance.

"LET ME IN!" Natsu demands on the outside, Dayton complaining along with him.

"Kyousuke! You're so annoying!"

"Let me in right now!" They both yammer, banging on the invisible wall. Each hit made a digital imprint as if it were an enchantment. Bored, Gajeel tossed the piece of iron away and approached the invisible wall, kicking it as his foot pushed through the wall like a plastic bag. Roxanne couldn't help but widen her eyes in shock as she saw Gajeel kick Natsu, sending him flying off into the streets. Dayton looked at him stunned.

"What the heck?! Did he just send Natsu flying into the street?!" Dayton says shocked, unaware of Gajeel about to do the same to him. Roxanne couldn't contain her laughter as she watched Dayton helplessly fly out into the street. As demonstrated, Gajeel had the upper-hand. He was able to toy with Natsu and Dayton all he wanted, as long as they were stupid enough to approach the invisible wall again. Dayton looked up and saw Roxanne laughing, feeling betrayed and upset. "Oh come on! Why are you laughing at me?!" Dayton complains upsettingly. Roxanne couldn't take it anymore; she felt a significant urge to use the restroom. Gajeel watched in confusion as she slammed the door behind her, sprinting through Kyousuke's house into his bathroom. She quickly shut the door, relieving the tension as Kyousuke, Erza and Lucy looked upstairs in confusion. Roxanne couldn't believe herself at the moment. She felt extremely awkward and embarrassed.

"_Why did I laugh like that?! I just needed to use the bathroom." _She wonders in confusion. Roxanne couldn't believe she laughed like that and felt ashamed of doing so. She couldn't help but find it funny, however, that Dayton was being toyed with by Gajeel. "_Now Gajeel's going to think I'm a klutz." _She says upsettingly.

Aside from that, Levy and Lucy reunited with each other, being best friends for their love to read. As they did that, Kyousuke was having a discussion with Erza about Earthland. He didn't mind her that much; she wasn't annoying like Natsu or Dayton.

"So, you're an S-Class wizard that goes to a guild named Fairy Tail?"

"That's correct." Erza assures. She took a drink out of a glass of whatever she was offered. "Speaking of wizards, there's also another Lightning Dragon Slayer in our guild." Erza explains calmly. She was about to go into detail until Kyousuke suddenly cut her off.

"There's a difference between Electric and Lightning Dragon Slayer Magic." Kyousuke explains. Erza gave him a perplexed look.

"How so?"

"Lightning is an electrostatic discharge that occurs in electrically charged regions. Therefore, if I can control electricity and not just lightning..."

"I see." Erza says calmly. She was a bit surprised that it would be so technical.

"It's not only complicated; it's also difficult to control. It reminds me of secret arts."

"Speaking of which, how many secret arts do you know?" Erza asks calmly. Something hit Kyousuke's mind before answering the question.

"Two."

"Interesting." Erza says calmly. The topic suddenly switched within seconds.

"I didn't know that Gajeel also was a Dragon Slayer." Kyousuke explains. Erza turned and shifted her look to the laundry room, which led to the garage Gajeel was currently in. He still was toying with the two Dragon Slayers stuck outside.

"He never told you?" Erza questions, as she goes on to explain. "Gajeel's an Iron Dragon Slayer. He has an interesting backstory."

"Really?" Kyousuke questions. Thing is, Erza didn't know everything about him; just what she's experienced. This only made the thought of Gajeel linger within Kyousuke's mind.

As they continued talking, Roxanne had finished her business and prepared to head downstairs. Something very strange caught her eye however. She turned to her left to see a black exceed just standing there, looking at Roxanne with a serious expression on his face.

"Excuse me ma'am?" He says calmly. The exceed had a small sword on his back, wearing green pants and having red eyes too. Roxanne became startled upon his words, but her attention was definitely caught.

"Are you an exceed?!" Roxanne wonders in shock. The black exceed feared of causing a panic, so he tried to calm her down.

"Don't be afraid; I don't mean any harm." He reassures. Roxanne calmly observed the exceed, walking up to it surprised.

"I'm not worried, just surprised." Roxanne explains. "How the heck did you get here?"

"That's not important. What is important is the man I'm looking for; he's tall with long, spiky black hair and red eyes."

"Wait, do you mean Gajeel?"

"Do you know where he is?!" The exceed questions. He was Gajeel's exceed, and so it was natural as to why the exceed would be looking for him.

"He's in the garage downstairs." Roxanne explains. Without hesitation, the exceed jumped off and headed downstairs on his own.

"_That's Erza down there."_ The exceed thinks to himself, calling out her name in the process.

"Erza!" He shouts, catching her attention as she turns around and looks at him with shock.

"Pantherlily?!" She says shocked, running up to him as Lucy, Levy, and Kyousuke look at him surprised. Lucy and Levy ran up to Pantherlily in relief while Kyousuke stood back and watched from a distance, wondering how long he may have been in his house for.

"Are you alright?" Erza asks.

"I'm fine." Pantherlily responds. They all discussed his whereabouts and what he's been currently doing while Kyousuke decided to head into the garage. He stopped, however, upon Pantherlily taking notice of him.

"Who's that?" Pantherlily wonders, as Erza explains.

"That's Kyousuke. It turns out that he's a dragon slayer himself."

"I see." Pantherlily says calmly. Kyousuke just stood there as everyone turned to look at him, suddenly crossing his arms and walking out to the garage. Pantherlily followed him out into the garage to see Gajeel toying around with Natsu and Dayton behind the invisible wall. Gajeel turned around and saw Pantherlily, being surprised that he was here.

"My cat!" He says surprised, ignoring the raging Natsu and Dayton and walking up to Kyousuke and Pantherlily.

"It's good to see you Gajeel." Pantherlily says relieved. Natsu on the outside catches notice of Pantherlily and stops banging on the wall, Dayton doing the same but instead becoming shocked.

"Is that an exceed?!" Dayton wonders surprised, Natsu looking at him with a rather calm expression.

"Yeah." Natsu states, Dayton looking at Pantherlily shocked. He was surprised to see an exceed in person, now knowing that they weren't some strange species someone just came up with.

"Do you have one?" Dayton asks curiously, causing Natsu to feel a bit depressed. It was a blue exceed named Happy, and they were best friends. Natsu wasn't able to find him anywhere out of all this time, and it began to upset him quite a bit. He desperately wanted to search for him, and that's just what he was going to do, running off as Dayton watched him in surprise.

"Hey! Where are you going?!"

"I'm gonna look for Happy!" Natsu shouts afar. Dayton looked at him with confusion, wondering how he would he would have any chance at finding him if he had no clue where Happy was in the first place. Natsu happened to be running out into an intersection when he collided with something and fell over. He fell down into the middle of the street as a blue exceed fell to the ground and bounced across the street a few feet.

"Hey! Can you watch where you're going?!" Natsu says annoyed, rubbing his head as the exceed did the same.

"Oww. That really hurts." The exceed moans. They suddenly forgot about it all, turning to each other in surprise. Natsu, and the exceed, Happy, looked up and stared at each other speechless until it turned into excitement and relief. "Natsu!"

"Happy!" Natsu shouts in response. They both ran up and reunited with one another; Dayton watching from afar whilst wondering what they were doing.

"I knew you would be okay buddy!" Natsu reassures. He was happy to see that Happy was okay, but not relieved; for he knew that Happy would be just fine. Natsu held the same confidence in all of his guild-mates. Just then, Happy started crying joyfully in Natsu's arms.

"I was so worried. I was lost, and I didn't know where you were and I didn't know what to do!" He cries, bawling in Natsu as he caringly pats his head.

"Don't worry. Everything's gonna be okay now." Natsu says reassuringly. Happy looked up and smiled at Natsu. Dayton watched them bond with surprise, having not thought that a dragon slayer and an exceed would be good partners and friends. Then the question hit his mind: what if he and Kyousuke had exceeds of their own? Nevertheless, Natsu and Happy got up and headed back to the house, stopping right in-front of Dayton, who was standing there like a statue. "Hey, are you alright?" Natsu questions perplexed. Dayton rustled his hair as he temporarily looked behind him.

"Yeah, I'm fine." He says calmly, turning his attention back to the two as Happy looks at him in wonder.

"Hey Natsu? Who is this?" Happy asks curiously, only for Dayton to interrupt.

"I'm Dayton." He says while scratching his neck.

"Well hi there! I'm Happy, and this is Natsu!" Happy introduces with joy. Dayton only looked at them with a weak smile on his face.

"I already know who Natsu is. He's been staying at my place for the..."

"Is that you're place down there?!" Happy wonders, flying off towards Kyousuke's house as Dayton watches alarmed.

"Wait, that's not my house!" Dayton shouts, trying to get Happy's attention to no avail. He and Natsu then ran off after Happy as he flew into Kyousuke's driveway. He was heading for the open garage door that Gajeel, Kyousuke and Pantherlily were in.

"Gajeel! It's..." Happy says before colliding into the invisible wall. He painfully fell to the ground, but it was enough to get their attention as they all looked at him.

"Well it seems that Happy also got sent to this world." Pantherlily states, watching Happy get up as his curiosity led him to touch the wall.

"What the heck! It's an invisible wall!" Happy says shocked. This only made him feel embarrassed for having so stupidly hit the wall. Kyousuke could care less though; he had enough people in his house as it is. As Natsu and Dayton approach Happy, Erza comes out the front door, having a notably serious look on her face.

"Natsu, we need to talk about..." Erza says, before stopping and realizing that Happy is there.

"Happy?!" Erza says relieved, just as he looks at her, also relieved.

"It's Erza." Happy states. The two had a little reunion before she got back to what she was going to say.

"Natsu, Dayton, we need to talk about the D-Raided." Erza calmly requests, sparking shock and confusion within the two.

"Wha..Why is that?" Dayton questions shocked. Erza went on to inform them of the situation.

"Kyousuke and Gajeel are going after them, and I think it's best if we accompany them on their journey."

"There's no way that I'm helping him!" Dayton grumbles. With that, Erza gave him a menacing glare that caused him to suddenly fear her wrath.

"I'm not going to say it again, we're going with them. Understand?" Erza demands. Dayton fearfully agreed with her terms.

"Yes ma'am!" Dayton says fearfully. Erza became calm once again.

"Good. Now let's get inside and start making plans." She orders, walking back into the house and shutting the door behind her. Dayton stands there frightened, having not expected Erza to act in a way similar to Roxanne. Roxanne is much more temperamental though.

"Man...She's scary."

"Yeah she is." Natsu says a bit frightened as well.

"She's one you do not want to mess with." Happy suggests, also frightened.

* * *

Eventually, they were all in Kyousuke's house, ready to discuss their current situation involving plans of invading the D-Raided.

"Alright, first off, we're going to have to track them down." Erza explains as everyone else listens, all ears.

"Tracking them will be difficult." Roxanne says calmly, pondering over it as Kyousuke just stared at her. She was definitely wrong about that.

"You want to know where they are?" Kyousuke calmly questions, catching everyone's attention. "They're in the Athanasian Mountains."

"How the heck did you figure that out?!" Roxanne says shocked.

"Well they're stupid enough to put their base in the mountains where anyone can find it. Their reason for it is also pretty pathetic." Kyousuke explains whilst rolling his eyes. Gajeel grinned a bit whilst Natsu looked at Kyousuke confused. Roxanne was a bit startled herself.

"And why is that?"

"They claim that there's some sort of life force there that grants them immortality. There's also a bright blue light that's occasionally cast into the sky, eliminating any form life that comes into contact with it." Kyousuke explains.

"Any form of life?!" Erza says shocked.

"You gotta be kidding me!" Lucy says frightened. Everyone was a bit surprised by this, and Kyousuke went on. His tone got noticeably darker and became full of hate.

"It's also where they kill dragon slayers and dragons." Kyousuke quickly explains. Dayton was filled up with rage, clenching his fists as Natsu started to get angry himself. Gajeel looked at Kyousuke with slight shock. Fear started to enter Lucy and Levy, and they couldn't help but worry about their dragon slayer friends. One was for sure though, Dayton was pissed.

"They think they can get away with that?!" Dayton angrily shouts. Everyone looked at him without any change of expression. "I'll beat them to a pulp before they even get that far!" Dayton shouts angrily. Natsu was just as angry, having felt the exact same way as Dayton. Kyousuke just stared at them with a build-up of hatred on the inside. The last thing he wanted was for those two idiots to accompany him on his trail to revenge, but he quickly thought of a workaround for this issue.

"_I'll kill them if they try to stop me._" Kyousuke thinks to himself. He didn't care who it was. Anyone who took his revenge away from him would suffer the consequences. He tried to not let his hatred surface, and it was working.

"We need to quit chit chatting and get a move on!" Gajeel demands. He was right, and they all got ready to go after the D-Raided. They all ran around the house, getting materials they may need as well as food for survival. Erza's requip powers would definitely come in handy. Roxanne also was a step ahead.

"I've got a map that we can use to get to the Athanasian Mountains." Roxanne informs. Erza smiled over her resourcefulness

"Good work." Erza compliments. Everyone got what was necessary, and they all were ready to head out. "Let's get going" Erza orders.

This was it. Two exceeds, a celestial wizard, a bookworm, two high classed wizards and four dragon slayers were about to take on the most powerful group in the world. The D-Raided was going to be at war very soon.


	11. Chapter 11: It's Increasing

Chapter 11: It's Increasing

Today was the day they were heading after the D-Raided. Walking was their preferred method of transportation; driving couldn't get them there faster. Anyways, they managed to pick up on a trail leading towards a large mountain. The mountain was grey like gravel with streaks of black flowing down its sides. It looked like a rock you might find on the ground somewhere, and ironically enough, that's why it was called _Rock Mountain_. Aside from that, the wizards walked towards the mountain in what you could say were "mini-groups". Natsu, Lucy, Happy and Dayton were together on Erza and Roxanne's left and Gajeel, Levy, Pantherlily and Kyousuke were on their right. Levy was holding Pantherlily in her arms happily while walking next to Gajeel on his left. Kyousuke was on Gajeel's right, looking rather calm as usual. Erza and Roxanne didn't say much, despite being the so called "leaders" of the group. Dayton was on Natsu's left. He looked somewhat bored, showing as he tilted his head from side to side, his hands in his pockets. Natsu was walking with his hands behind his head as Happy flew next to him and Lucy walked along on his right. It was about 3:00 and the sun was still shining, bright as ever.

Dayton's thoughts suddenly took off and dragged him into a world of romance. In the midst of such a world, he took Roxanne by her side and pulled her up to him, preparing for a kiss.

"_Don't worry. Lava is always warmer than electricity."_Dayton says to Roxanne, hearing Kyousuke throw a fit over it. He imagines Roxanne sliding her hand down his chest seductively, shooting him a sexy stare as Kyousuke looks at him with jealousy.

"_Oh Dayton, your lava is just so hot_." Roxanne says. They then pull each other in for a kiss.

"_Fire and Lava always come together."_ A male voice says seductively, Dayton opening his eyes in surprise. He then sees that the one he was about to kiss was none other than Natsu, causing him to jump and scream at the thought.

"Whoa Roxanne! You're Natsu too?!" Dayton blurts, back in reality. Roxanne glared at him with confusion, feeling awkward on the inside as Natsu just turned his head to Dayton. Roxanne was about to barf at such a thought.

"What about me?" Natsu wonders. Dayton started shaking his head in a panic.

"Oh it's nothing! I just was thinking about kissing Gajeel." Dayton blurts out. It only made matters worse when he realized that he said Gajeel instead of Natsu. He wasn't even thinking about him. Gajeel shot him a perplexed and annoyed look as Dayton suddenly started cringing. "Oh man, not Gajeel."

"You've got a problem with me or somethin'?!" Gajeel angrily questions. Dayton felt nothing but awkward as all the attention was on him.

"Why on earth would you think of that?" Roxanne asks perplexed, causing Dayton to cringe even more.

"He was probably having a fantasy about Roxanne again." Kyousuke points out, causing Dayton to blush.

"Hey! Shut up you!" Dayton shouts, Roxanne looking at him frustrated.

"So you were thinking about me again, weren't you?!" Roxanne says in frustration. Dayton put his hands up in fear.

"Come on now! I was just thinking!" Dayton says, trying to calm her down. This only increased her frustration until Erza calmly put a hand on her shoulder.

"Calm down," she calmly suggests, "You needn't hold back when expressing your feelings."

"What, are you in love with Natsu?"

"Well I used to shower with him when we were kids." Erza explains calmly. Roxanne became filled with disgust at just the possibility. Dayton, on the other hand, was mind-blown.

"_She showered with Natsu? Just think, Roxanne showering with me!_" Dayton thinks to himself, getting all lovely-dovey as Roxanne glares at him.

"Don't even think about it!" She angrily demands, to which he continues to think about it anyway. Erza received the strangest looks from Kyousuke and Gajeel, who never even knew about this in the first place. Even Levy and Lucy started to look nervous themselves (even though Lucy knew of this beforehand).

"How crude." Kyousuke says disgusted, looking away in disgust as Gajeel thinks the same.

"Well, that's Erza for you." Levy says calmly. Erza didn't feel any sort of awkwardness when telling them. In fact, it seems that she actually enjoyed it, for she had a smile on her face. Lucy giggled a bit (still wondering of the kind of relationship they had) and Natsu was walking casually, not even listening as they continued on.

"Man, I'm starving." Natsu complains. He was a fire dragon slayer, so he could eat fire if he needed to. The problem was getting the fire.

"You can deal with it Natsu." Erza calmly states.

"What? You're hungry already? We just ate an hour ago." Roxanne questions surprised.

"That was you who ate an hour ago." Kyousuke remembers. He was right, for she bought a bunch of fruit for her to eat; that was when this whole thing started five hours ago. She became embarrassed at her inability to remember as Erza looks at her surprised.

"You're certainly prepared I see." Erza says. Dayton couldn't help but get hungry himself.

"I need something to eat too." Dayton groans. Erza also told him to deal with it as Natsu and Dayton only went on to complain. Gajeel watched them complain and thought they were idiots, only for his stomach to suddenly growl, annoying him in the process. Kyousuke noticed and managed to come prepared, pulling out a large iron brick for him to eat.

"Here, have it." Kyousuke offers, handing the iron to Gajeel as he observed it. He instantly took a bite out of the iron and savored its flavor, continuing to eat it as Natsu and Dayton watched in jealousy.

"What! No way!" Natsu complains. Dayton prepared to tackle Kyousuke, wondering what else he may have. Roxanne wasn't about to let him though.

"Nope." she says, pushing Dayton back as he looks away annoyed. Eventually, the group managed to get to the side of the mountain. From the mountain, they looked down to see a graciously large forest. It was so large and full of trees, being too complicated to simply navigate their way through.

"It looks like we'll have to find another way around." Erza calmly suggests.

"There is no other way around." Roxanne assures. "These trees must be cut down to get there, as it seems."

"Very well then." Erza says, preparing to do so. It was then that she decided to use her magic for once. Roxanne watched in surprise as Erza began to glow upon using her requip. She touched the space she's in as her hands flow through it as if it was water. Erza vibrantly glowed yellow whilst changing into her armor. She then pushed her hands outward as blue streaks of light are shot out; her current armor being altered into an entirely new set. A large, stylish, light blue armor was then seen accompanied by feather-like wings. The armor glowed vibrantly within the sun. It was her Heaven's Wheel Armor. Roxanne looked at her with shock, realizing the fascinating beauty of the armor.

"_This is incredible."_Roxanne thinks to herself amazed. She had her own abilities, but there was no way she could compare them to Erza's (at least in her view). Natsu and Dayton got pumped, ready to cut down some trees.

"Let's do this!" Dayton shouts brashly, storming into the trees with a lava ball when he's stopped by Erza. She grabs him by his shirt and throws him back.

"You fool! You'll burn down the entire forest!" Erza says angrily. Dayton realized that she was right, regretfully restraining himself. "Natsu, you stay behind as well." Erza commands. Natsu reluctantly sits on the ground with Dayton, disappointed overall. Happy just sat next to Natsu, watching him closely as he became bored.

"Idiot." Kyousuke taunts, shunning Dayton who looks at Kyousuke annoyed. Natsu and Gajeel got themselves into a stare-down; looking at each other fiercely as time passed. Roxanne continued to observe Erza's armor in awe. Erza turned towards Roxanne and wondered if Roxanne could help out.

"I can help." Roxanne says calmly, deciding to reveal her own abilities. She did a stance similar to Erza, but this requip was different. The requip process involved Roxanne using the space around her to forge her own weaponry for her usage, despite actually referring to a selected set of weapons like Erza's Knight Requip. The requip soon ended and she was holding a laser saw in her hands. There was a blue glow on the outside of the blade, and the chassis was red. Erza was impressed, watching as Roxanne prepared to get to work.

"So you can requip as well?" Erza questions. Roxanne nodded in response.

"This is my power, let's put it into action." Roxanne says calmly. Erza nodded in agreement as Roxanne ran through the forest, cutting down as many trees as possible with her laser saw. Erza flew into the forest after her, cutting down trees even faster. The amount of trees she cut down was sky-high compared to Roxanne, and Roxanne watched her in shock. She was amazed at her skill. Erza summoned multiple swords to speed up the job, and it made Roxanne seem pretty much useless. As Erza sliced through the forest, she looked around and noticed Roxanne just standing there. She had finished cutting down the bodies of the trees, so only the roots were left. Erza encouraged Roxanne to do something.

"Don't just stand there! Show me something!" Erza encourages. Roxanne had been too distracted to try, but she did anyway. She picked up her laser saw and held it confidently, ready to prove herself once more.

"Alright then, here goes." She says. Just then, the blue blade on the laser saw suddenly expanded, having become more than simply its glow. She then held the saw back like a baseball bat and swung it with tremendous force. A blue laser was shot from the saw as it flew through all the tree-roots and burned them to a crisp. Erza watched as the laser flew into a large rock, only managing to make a small dent due to it losing power overtime. Roxanne used up a bit of magic in that technique, and so she was breathing heavily. Erza calmly flew down onto the ground next to Roxanne, requipping back into her traditional armor.

"Well done. That was quite impressive." Erza calmly applauds. Roxanne was surprised to hear such a response.

"Thanks, but I have to admit; you're much stronger than me."

"Now come on. You should be confident in your abilities." Erza says encouragingly as Roxanne requipped her saw away. "I might train you myself." Erza offers. Roxanne could only look at her in awe; to be trained by Erza to her was a gift. She could potentially build her skill up to a very high level.

"Oh...wow." Roxanne says stunned. An explosion of excitement stemmed from inside of her, but she seemed rather calm on the outside. The idea of Erza training her hadn't crossed her mind until now. "That would be nice." She calmly accepts. Roxanne walked back up to the others as Erza looks at her concerned.

"_She doesn't sound as excited as I thought she would."_ Erza thinks to herself perplexed. It was kind of odd, but Erza didn't worry about it too much, forgetting it as she also returned to the others. They all got up and started heading down the mountain-side. Dayton and Natsu ran down the mountain joyfully while everyone else walked. Roxanne, walking back up, turned to Kyousuke, watching him as he went down. He looked rather deadpan, keeping his focus on the ground and the ground only. Roxanne couldn't understand it; why did he hate the D-Raided so much? It was as if the closer he got, the more hateful he became.

"_I have to find out why he's acting like this._" Roxanne thinks to herself determined. The memory of Kyousuke pinning Dayton up against the wall returned once more. She started to think, "_From what I've observed, we're all similar to each other in power, personality, and possibly even the past. If Dayton and Natsu's parents both disappeared in the same way, could it be possible that Gajeel might have a similar connection to Kyousuke?"_The analogy gave her hope. She knew that Kyousuke would just shut her out from such information, so she might go to Gajeel. Then she immediately dismissed the thought, thinking of how invasive such a question would be. "_Asking Gajeel might not be the best option."_Roxanne thinks to herself calmly, but regretfully. From what she assumed, Gajeel wouldn't tell her anything, and he would only get angry if she tried prying into information like that. Lucy arrived and noticed her just standing there, overthinking the situation. She gave Roxanne a concerned look.

"Hey. Are you okay?" Lucy asks out of concern. Roxanne suddenly shook her head and faced toward the bottom of the mountain.

"I'm fine. Don't worry about me." Roxanne assures. Lucy looked at her confused as Roxanne continued to head down the mountain. What Lucy didn't notice was Roxanne's tightening throat; she was walking down with a sore heart. Lucy felt somewhat upset, sensing some sort of turmoil. "_I hope she's okay._" Lucy thinks to herself calmly. She was a gentle soul, caring about her friends quite a bit.

* * *

Eventually with time, the group managed to find a spot in the forest where they could rest for the night. There was a small bonfire in the center of the group, burning brightly as the wizards slept around it. Everyone but Kyousuke had crashed within minutes, and they were lying against some sort of tree or log. Lucy and Levy were sleeping against one tree while Dayton, Natsu, and Happy were sleeping against a large log. Gajeel and Pantherlily were sleeping against another tree, and Erza and Roxanne slept against another log. Within minutes however, Erza suddenly woke up from having a strange dream. It wasn't a nightmare, but it was quite strange. She breathed heavily and tuned into her surroundings. All she could hear was the wind, her breath, and the crackling fire that was reduced to hot coals. Realizing it was just a dream, she lied there against the log, trying to fall back into the world of sleep once more. However, it failed, and so she just lied there, losing herself in the dark blue night sky. The gargantuan sky was decorated with beautiful speckles of light you would call "stars". You could even see a planet in the sky if you were sharp enough to spot it.

"_The sky's quite beautiful tonight."_ Erza thinks to herself peacefully. She observed the area and came across Natsu and Dayton's snoring, while everyone else was quiet. She turned to her left and saw Roxanne next to her against the log, being asleep herself as Erza turned back and looked at Gajeel and Pantherlily. She tried to look for Kyousuke, but she couldn't spot him. She began to feel alarmed, forcing herself to get up and search for him. "_Where is he?!"_Erza thinks to herself in a panic. She started running through the forest, not realizing the amount of noise her armor made. Gajeel opened his eyes and looked up to see Erza run through the forest, wondering where she was headed.

"_What's up with her?"_ He thinks to himself confused. Erza continued through the forest in search of Kyousuke, remembering his reaction to Dayton when the D-Raided was brought up.

_"He better not have gone after them."_Erza thinks angrily. However, the possibility of such only felt truer. She continued running, before stopping and turning to her right when something caught her eye. Kyousuke was sitting on the edge of a cliff, looking down at the large forest that was beneath him. Erza felt relief surge through her as she calmed down and smiled. "_Well, that was a close one."_She thought to herself calmly. Her attention was on Kyousuke, who looked like a statue since he wasn't moving a single muscle. She then walked up to him; her armor's noise catching his attention in the process. "What are you doing out here this late at night?" Erza asks kindly. She had a polite expression on her face, but Kyousuke was sort of annoyed.

"_Of course, now she's here."_Kyousuke thinks to himself irritated. Despite such irritation, he answered her question anyway. "I'm not tired." He states. Erza sat herself down on the edge of the cliff next to him.

"Dayton's out like a light."

"That's not surprising." Kyousuke says calmly, causing Erza to chuckle a bit on the inside.

"He and Natsu are quite alike, aren't they?"

"Well yeah, but Dayton's deals with love drama, and Natsu seems like an idiot when it comes to dating."

"Love drama?" Erza wonders in surprise, causing Kyousuke to take a deep breath and explain. They were unaware of Gajeel lying back in the trees unnoticed, eavesdropping on their entire conversation.

"Dayton has always wanted to date Roxanne, but he has trouble controlling what he wants to think about. I bet when he said that he was thinking about kissing Gajeel, he was really thinking of Natsu." Kyousuke calmly explains. Gajeel couldn't help but put Dayton in a more idiotic light.

"_Man that kid's a moron."_Gajeel thinks to himself, thinking of Dayton. Erza didn't seem too surprised about it.

"That is strange." Erza says calmly. Kyousuke didn't have a response. He just continued to stare down into the forest with all those thoughts racing in his mind. No one could see the underlying tension that continued to build up inside of him, growing as they got closer to the D-Raided. Erza decided to change the topic and ask some questions about Gajeel. It was strange to her about how they got along so easily.

"So then..." She says, catching Kyousuke's attention, "Do you like Gajeel?"

"As a friend." Kyousuke says calmly. Gajeel was a bit surprised by this, and continued to listen. Erza looked slightly surprised herself.

"Is that so?" Erza wonders. She continued to delve into the questions that lingered within her mind. "You know that he's an Iron Dragon Slayer, don't you?"

"Yeah. I was kind of surprised to find that out."

"Who told you?"

"Levy."

"Of course she did." Erza says while smiling. She started getting excited as she saw potential in this relationship of theirs. "Gajeel seems interested in you." Erza says, causing Kyousuke to look at her surprised. "Normally he isolates himself from everyone, but he doesn't seem to mind hanging around with you."

"That's what seems unusual." Kyousuke says surprised, getting involved in the discussion. "Knowing how I am, I wouldn't have thought he would do that."

"Well you're both Dragon Slayers. Perhaps this was something that was bound to happen."

"I can say about you and Roxanne; you're practically the same. I'm not gonna question it." Kyousuke explains. Erza thought about it and couldn't help but agree too. Kyousuke continued on, "Then Gajeel came along and everything just changed. I mean, this whole trip starts with him."

"That's surprising." Erza says in bewilderment. Gajeel observed and caught onto what Kyousuke was referring to. He was prepared to hear the worst.

"But then I tried to shut him out, and he refused to be shut out. There's something about him. It's like he's the one I have to go to, that he's the one with all the answers."

"What answers?" Erza wonders. She began to get a glimpse of what his life may be like, but it was all clouded with assumptions. Kyousuke refused to answer that question though.

"Nothing, it's not important." Kyousuke finalizes. It was clear that he didn't want to talk about it. With that, Erza felt nothing else to say. She got up and prepared to head back.

"Well you better get some rest. Tomorrow is going to be a big day." Erza suggests. She then heads back, just as Kyousuke sits there for a little longer.

Gajeel, on the other-hand, felt bewilderment. "_I'm the one with all the answers?" _Gajeel thinks to himself confused. The idea perplexed him; what answers? He knew of the pain that Kyousuke suffered through, but what caused this pain, and what answers would he be looking for? It was only then that he decided to head back and ponder over it, until Kyousuke said something.

"It won't matter in the end though." Kyousuke says depressingly. Gajeel turned around and looked at him shocked, watching him get up and slowly walk back. He looked rather distraught, to the point of where a tear pours down his face. Kyousuke thought that once he accomplished his mission, it would be the end. Gajeel had to do something; talking just won't cut it. He knew that the route Kyousuke was taking wouldn't end in the way he would've anticipated, so he had to do something to prevent such a nasty end.

"_He ain't an idiot, but he has no idea of what he's getting himself into."_ Gajeel thinks to himself calmly. Perhaps Kyousuke was dead-set on his goals, but he was unaware of his transformation into a force to be reckoned with.


	12. Chapter 12: Training Day

Chapter 12: Training Day

Today was training day, as Erza had already announced. Since the three mages from this world had some sort of hidden potential, the three Fairy Tail mages had decided to train them. Well, mostly Erza, since it was her idea. Gajeel and Natsu didn't seem to object however; they wanted some action themselves. Anyways, the six would go in groups of two and train alone, while everyone else would either stay behind or spectate one of those groups. They all split up and headed off in separate directions: Erza with Roxanne, Natsu with Dayton, and Gajeel with Kyousuke. You could say that they were eager to train for many reasons. They wanted to get stronger, Gajeel and Natsu were becoming bored with just sitting around all the time, they wanted to find out more about the three Earth wizards, and etc. Thing is, they took off in the morning when Lucy and Levy were still sleeping, so the two were left there by mistake. Roxanne was one step ahead, however, and left a device that would inform her of any strange events, such as an ambush for example.

Natsu was walking, excited about being able to train. Dayton, on the other-hand, couldn't keep himself awake for very long. His head was tilted forward as if he was sleepwalking. He kept walking, being completely oblivious to the forest he was in with Natsu, who wasn't really paying attention to him. Natsu was walking with his hands behind his head as usual. He continuously looked for a place to fight in, remembering how Erza demanded that he find a place free of trees. Happy was flying with the two, staring at Dayton as the latter continued to sleep walk. Dayton kept mumbling to himself things he was dreaming of.

"No...Kyousuke...I can't...lose. Roxanne...is...attractive...ha...ha." Dayton mumbles out-loud. Happy turns and eyes Dayton perplexed look on his face.

"Uh Natsu?"

"What is it buddy?" Natsu replies.

"I think there's something wrong with Dayton." He explains. Dayton was still mumbling to himself as Natsu turned his head and looked at the sleepless zombie.

"Umm...Erza...don't kill me. Roxanne...be mine..." Dayton mumbles further-more. He starts walking off course and runs into a tree; Happy and Natsu staring at him perplexed. Natsu stops and walks back to Dayton, just staring at the Lava Dragon Slayer, who's still trying to sleep. Being the idiot that he was, he only wondered what Dayton was up to. Dayton had a peculiar smile glued to his face as he thought about the weirdest things again. It only got weirder over-time.

"Oh...man. Kyousuke...is dating...Gajeel? Is...Erza a...lesbian?" He mumbles to himself. Natsu stood over him, bending over and looking him right in the face.

"Dude, are you okay?" He asks Dayton, having a confused look on his face. Natsu held out a hand and immersed it in flames, holding it next to Dayton's head as Dayton suddenly woke up and screamed. He jumped up and threw himself towards the tree behind him.

"ALRIGHT I'M AWAKE!" He screams. Dayton was shaking fearfully, afraid that it was either Roxanne or Erza. He then calmed down and looked at the two confused, who gave him the same look.

"Ugh, where are we?" Dayton wonders, having known nothing since he was asleep the whole time.

"Oh wow! He's totally forgotten about our plan to train!" Happy says shocked. That was enough to derail Dayton's thought process off the track of wonder.

"What?! We're training! No way!" Dayton shouts, sprinting past Natsu into a large field ahead of him. "Let's go!" Dayton shouts, laughing in excitement. Natsu turned and grew a smile on his face, heading in Dayton's direction. Both Natsu and Happy got excited themselves.

"We've got a whole lot of training to do! Are you ready Happy?" Natsu questions out of excitement. Happy just said his usual, "Aye sir!"

* * *

While they were on their way to train, Erza and Roxanne had been quietly walking to their destination. They needed to find a place that wasn't crowded with trees either, but it wasn't because they would burn down the forest. Perhaps with Erza's Fire Empress Armor, but she wasn't stupid enough to do something like that.

"This forest is much bigger than I thought." Roxanne acknowledges. Erza agreed. The forest wasn't big, it was huge! Trees within hundreds of miles surrounded the area, and the layout of the landscape was real smooth, unlike a mountain top. It's no wonder why the D-Raided would've chosen such a place to settle in.

"It is quite large. It'll be difficult to find a good spot to start training." Erza says. They must've gotten bad luck, since Natsu and Gajeel were able to find good training spots quite easily. Their best option was to cut some trees down, since it would most likely take forever to find a good spot. Despite such, she took a left and continued to search for a good training spot while Roxanne tried to help her. She really couldn't do much, but she tried helping anyway. Eventually, Erza started to become impatient, and finally decided to make her own training space. "It seems that we'll have to create our own area to train, unfortunately." Erza says in disappointment. She requipped into her Heaven's Wheel Armor once more, summoning a great deal of swords and cutting through the trees, creating their own training space.

* * *

While they both had large fields to train in, Gajeel had desired to train in a specific place. He managed to spot an area the day before, so he decided to head there. Gajeel, Pantherlily, and Kyousuke were quietly walking there without saying a word. Kyousuke kept pondering over his conversation with Erza last night; specifically about his thoughts on Gajeel. He saw Gajeel in such a light, yet he continued to wonder why he was so insistent on helping him.

"_Why does this bother me so much?"_Kyousuke wonders to himself confused. "_He can help me if he wants, but he's not stopping me from getting vengeance."_He continued walking, thinking about the D-Raided and Gajeel's advice. The thought continued to poke at him and it became quite frustrating. Kyousuke decided to straight up ask him, but he couldn't get it out. He eventually forced it out at one point. "Hey Gajeel."

"Yeah, what is it?" He asks with a serious tone. Kyousuke took a deep breath and calmed down, looking away before asking.

"Why do you want to help me out with this mission?" Kyousuke wonders, receiving a perplexed expression from Gajeel.

"Huh? What do you mean _why?_"

"I'm just curious. Why do you want to help me out with stopping the D-Raided anyway?" Kyousuke says calmly. Gajeel thought of the conversation Kyousuke had with Erza last night, and their argument before this whole thing took place. He grew a stern look on his face, narrowing his eyes as he continued walking to their training area.

"You ain't gonna get anywhere the way you are. Face it, you're gonna need my help whether you like it or not." Gajeel explains. Kyousuke refused to accept that as an answer, but decided not to push the topic any further.

"_I know that's not the answer. Why doesn't he just tell me?"_Kyousuke thinks to himself confused. Pantherlily had been analyzing the situation, wondering about this himself.

"_Come to think of it, that is quite peculiar."_Pantherlily thinks to himself calmly, looking up at Gajeel. He stared at him for a bit before looking back down at the ground with a calm smile on his face. "_Whatever it is, I'm sure Gajeel has it under control."_Pantherlily thinks to himself. Their history is quite interesting, and they have been partners for about eight years, if you count the years they were frozen in time. Pantherlily always trusted Gajeel, and vice versa.

* * *

The groups finally reached their destinations, and they were ready to start training. However, each of them was training in their own way, based on their fighting styles. Natsu decided to train Dayton using pure hand-to-hand combat and his Fire Dragon Slayer magic. Of course, this was after being reminded that they had to train in the first place.

"Alright," Natsu says energetically; engulfing his fists in flames, "Give me everything you've got!"

"Really?! Everything?!" Dayton questions surprised. Natsu smiled in response.

"You're a Lava Dragon Slayer, aren't you? I'm gonna show you how hot my flames are!" Natsu shouts energetically. Dayton got all hyped, getting into a fighting stance as he covers himself in his Lava Dragon Slayer magic.

"Alright, here I come!" Dayton announces, flying towards Natsu, ready to fight. Dayton attacks with a punch aimed at Natsu's face, but Natsu simply dodges it and lands a blow to Dayton's chest. "_He already landed a hit on me?!"_Dayton thinks to himself shocked. "_He's much stronger than Kyousuke. I really have to take this seriously."_He prepares to fight even faster, throwing multiple punches at Natsu, to which he blocks them with ease. Dayton then attempts to launch Natsu off the ground as he ducks down and attempts to kick him whilst doing a back-handspring. Natsu easily dodges it by bending backwards as Dayton watches him in surprise. "_He's making it seem like nothing! This is crazy!"_Dayton thinks to himself shocked.

"Better watch out, cause here I come!" Natsu says energetically. His fists were covered in flames and he managed to hit Dayton easily. Another punch to Dayton's arm caused him to be pushed back a few feet. Dayton held his arm in pain as Natsu looked at him confidently, standing boldly. "Come on! You gotta do better than that!" Natsu encourages, smiling as Dayton looks at him surprised.

"_He's right. I need to try harder._" Dayton says to himself. He then rushes to Natsu, immersed within his lava dragon scales as he starts throwing Natsu a flurry of punches. Natsu doesn't do much to block them, but Dayton uses that to his advantage and tries catching him off guard, getting down and preparing to do a sweep kick. "I've got you now!" Dayton says confidently, about to hit Natsu when Natsu grabs his leg and flips himself over. Dayton watched in shock as Natsu used his leg to get behind him. "What?!" Dayton says amazed, "That didn't even work?!"

"Fire Dragon's Iron Fist!" Natsu shouts, punching Dayton in the stomach with his flame-enhanced attack. Dayton is blown-back by the attack; his attention still fixated on Natsu.

"_Okay, so he uses Fire Dragon Slayer magic and I use Lava Dragon Slayer magic. I need to give it my all!"_Dayton thinks to himself. He then stands up straight, his hands turning into lava. He can feel the lava emitting from his hands, receiving enthusiastic looks from Natsu, who grew a bigger smile on his face. "Alright! Now I'm all fired up!" Natsu shouts excitedly. Dayton then charged at him with his Lava, ready to show Natsu just how powerful he really is.

* * *

As those two duke it out, Erza and Roxanne progressed through their own training method. Erza and Roxanne stood 20 feet away from each other, conversing before they actually started.

"So you're a weapons specialist?"

"That's right." Roxanne calmly replies. "And you're a master swordsmanship specialist."

"That's correct." Erza confirms, requipping into her Heaven's Wheel armor to start. Roxanne got into a defensive stance for Erza was ready to engage her. "First, I need to find out how strong you are. Then we can build upon that to increase your strength." Erza explains calmly. "I want you to give me everything you've got!"

"If that is what you want." Roxanne says calmly. She then requips and pulls out two large shuriken, holding them as if she was about to throw them.

"I'll give it everything I've got!" Roxanne shouts confidently, starting off the training match. She throws the two shuriken at high speed, watching as Erza gets ready to block them. She does so with ease, slicing through them as they dissipate from the air. She looks down to her left to see that Roxanne is already on the move, holding out a katana as she prepares to strike. Erza quickly blocks it and manages to hold her off. Roxanne continues to struggle until she realizes that it'll result in nothing, jumping back as the two take a small breather. Erza looked at her with a smile on her face.

"You used the shuriken as a diversion for your next attack. I see that you're quite strategic when it comes to battle." Erza says slightly amused.

"I believe that anyone who requips should be strategic." Roxanne says calmly. Erza closed her eyes and smiled.

"I couldn't agree more." She says confidently, summoning more swords, much to Roxanne's dismay. Erza summoned four swords for Roxanne, wishing to test her using another method. "Let's see if you can handle this." Erza shouts, ready to go. Roxanne began to run towards Erza, changing her weapon into a wind-cannon. She sped up and shot the cannon at her swords, diverting Erza's attention to the wind. The wind formed a tornado around Erza, but she managed to negate it using her swords.

"_She stopped the wind from forming into a tornado?! I'll have to think of a new strategy_." Roxanne thinks to herself. She fired again at Erza, creating another tornado in the process. Roxanne then quickly requipped a flame-cannon, aiming it at the wind and using it as a fuel. She fired the cannon, igniting the tornado in flames as the flames surrounded Erza. Lucky for them that they eliminated the trees in the vicinity, otherwise they would be in serious trouble. Erza surprised Roxanne again by extinguishing the flames surrounding her, now being clothed in her Flame-Empress armor.

"It also seems that you can use weapons associated different elements." Erza observes. In the heat of the moment, Roxanne realized that Erza swung her flame sword towards her, wanting to see if Roxanne could extinguish the flames herself. Roxanne quickly brought back her wind-cannon and literally compressed it. The result was a small, thick blade that she swung around in place. This surrounded Roxanne in a turbulence of wind, which extended outward and smothered the flames that were created from Erza's sword. Erza looked at Roxanne surprised, taking note of Roxanne's skill in battle.

"I can change my cannon's form into a blade, depending on the situation." Roxanne explains with a smirk on her face. Erza was astonished by such, realizing that she had more potential than expected.

"_She can do that?! That's quite impressive. If she's this powerful, I wonder just how powerful Dayton and Kyousuke might be_." Erza thinks to herself shocked. She had yet to see their full potential, however, and because of that, she decided to take a turning point. She requipped into her Flight armor as Roxanne looked at her in wonder. "Alright then. Let's test your speed." Erza says calmly, storming towards Roxanne as she widens her eyes in shock.

"_Whoa! Her speed is immense!"_Roxanne says baffled, getting ready to dodge her. She had to move quickly, requipping whilst Erza was approaching her faster and faster.

* * *

As their training took place, Kyousuke had to train with Gajeel. Perhaps Gajeel wouldn't hold back, but Kyousuke had second thoughts about that. If Gajeel wanted to kill him, he could've easily done it already. The thought of such made Kyousuke's blood boil, strangely enough. He looked up at Gajeel, who was standing 10 feet away from him, giving Kyousuke a calm, serious look.

"_Now come on, be realistic. You can't hate him for that reason, it's ridiculous_." Kyousuke thinks to himself. He didn't want to hate Gajeel, so he was trying whatever he could to prevent himself from doing so. Kyousuke couldn't completely control his emotions, so they could easily cloud his logical sight. Gajeel was just standing there, arms crossed, waiting for Kyousuke to make a move.

"I want you to give me all you've got." Gajeel demands. Kyousuke just stared at him in surprise.

"Everything...I've got?"

"Yeah." Gajeel says calmly. Pantherlily was watching from the sidelines. You could tell he was observing them; he happened to be quite interested in finding out more about Kyousuke's abilities.

"_Gajeel's very strong. Wanting Kyousuke to come at him with everything is exactly something he would do. However, I don't know anything about Kyousuke's abilities. From what I'm seeing though, he probably isn't stronger than Gajeel, as is true with Roxanne and Dayton as well."_Pantherlily thinks to himself. As he watched from the sidelines, Kyousuke stood calmly, taking a deep breath. Upon exhaling, he took off after Gajeel, beginning the training match. His first instinct was to land a powerful blow to Gajeel's chest. However, it didn't work. The only result was extreme pain; it was as if he punched a brick wall.

"What the hell?!" Kyousuke shouts painfully, shaking his hand. Gajeel could only grin at the sight. He knew Kyousuke would fall for such a simple trick; everyone else fell for it too. "_I shouldn't have been so stupid!"_Kyousuke thinks to himself angrily. Gajeel's skin appeared to look normal, but he was solid iron. This was going to more difficult than Kyousuke imagined. He summoned his chokuto and immediately started fighting with it. However, he wasn't trying to slice Gajeel with it; he was using it as an asset. Instead of using the sword as a weapon, he used it to create his own style of hand-to-hand combat. Pantherlily could only watch Kyousuke in surprise, being impressed by such a fighting style, despite Gajeel blocking every single attack Kyousuke threw at him.

"_I've never seen anyone fight like that. It's as if he's dancing with the sword."_Pantherlily thinks to himself bewildered. Kyousuke at one point grabbed the sword and flipped forward, slamming it down on Gajeel's shoulder as Kyousuke shot electricity through the sword. Kyousuke thought that since he was electricity and Gajeel was iron, that he, Kyousuke, would have the upper-hand. However, he was proven wrong when Gajeel just stood there with a grin on his face, knowing that Kyousuke's electricity was flowing through him. Gajeel knew that Kyousuke wasn't giving him his all and it began to irritate him, since Kyousuke's electricity only felt like a faint tickle.

"Come on! I told you to give me your all!" Gajeel shouts angrily, punching Kyousuke in the stomach with immense strength, easily overwhelming him. Had Kyousuke been too arrogant to take this fight seriously? Kyousuke felt devastated at Gajeel's strength in comparison. He even noticed that Gajeel wasn't giving it his all himself, in-fact he looked bored!

"_He's way stronger than I thought. How did I underestimate him?"_Kyousuke thinks to himself shocked. Whilst being blasted back at high speed, Kyousuke used his sword and drove it through the ground, using it to help him slow down and stop. Just before he stopped, he pulled his sword back out and swung it in a circle, creating a blue, electrical shockwave that he sent flying towards Gajeel. However, it also proved ineffective as Gajeel simply split in two and sent it flying off behind him.

"That ain't gonna work. I'm gonna just keep toying with you until you start getting serious." Gajeel says annoyed. He shot a look at Kyousuke and narrowed his eyes, crossing his arms as he waited for Kyousuke to start taking the fight seriously. Pantherlily was impressed by Kyousuke's agility, but he wasn't surprised that Gajeel would easily over-power him.

"_Alright then, I'll give him my all. Let's see how he handles it."_ Kyousuke thinks to himself. He was shocked by his strength, but he wasn't done just yet. "Then let's get to it." Kyousuke says calmly. He let his chokuto dissipate within the air, preparing for the real fight as he began to charge up his magical energy. "Just like you asked, I won't hold back. You better be ready." Kyousuke advises. Gajeel grew a grin on his face, ready to take this seriously. He really wanted to figure out how strong Kyousuke was overall, so he could train him to be even stronger. Kyousuke's hands began to glow an electric blue, covering his arms as electricity started surging through his own body. He then opened his eyes once his body was charged, ready to use his Dragon Slayer Magic on Gajeel. Gajeel started to get excited as the real battle was about to start. Dayton, Roxanne, and Kyousuke are now starting to take their battles seriously. Will they be able to hold their own, and possibly even impress their superior mages?


	13. Chapter 13: Training Continues

Chapter 13: Training Continued (They Attack)

Their training continues! It was time for them to start taking this seriously and really go at it with one another. Dayton started taking his fight with Natsu seriously, running up to him and firing another flurry of punches. Natsu still continued to dodge them, but he noticed how much more difficult it was to do so.

"It's time for some magic!" Dayton announces, ready to duke it out usimg his Lava Dragon Slayer magic.

"Lava Dragon Orb!" Dayton shouts, forging an orb of Lava in the palm of his hand. He instantly zoomed up and attempted to hit Natsu, which failed for Natsu grabbed his arm beforehand. Dayton, however, forcefully pulled Natsu towards him, getting ready as he prepared to hit Natsu in the chest. Surprisingly enough, it actually made contact, burning Natsu's clothing as Dayton attempted to hit him again. Natsu, however, jumped back before Dayton could do so and looked down at his shirt, noticing how he nearly burnt a hole into his shirt.

"Alright! You got me!" Natsu admit. Dayton was only standing there, smiling confidently. "Now I'm really getting fired up!" Natsu shouts energized, preparing to use his own dragon slayer magic against Dayton. He then attacked using his Fire Dragon's Talon, successfully hitting Dayton with the attack as it pushed him back a few feet. This was nowhere near enough to stop Dayton though, for he went straight for Natsu afterwards.

"Lava Dragon's Splash Claw!" Dayton shouts, spinning in place as he turned and faced Natsu. Natsu failed to realize that Dayton's hands were immersed in magma, watching as Dayton managed to hit him with his magma covered fists. He looked at Dayton shocked when he came into contact with the magma. It didn't hurt Natsu that much, but it surprised him, and Natsu could tell that the lava was indeed hot. Dayton smiled confidently, knowing Natsu wasn't expecting that one.

"Don't think that my Lava Dragon's orb is the only technique up my sleeve. I held back in my fight against Kyousuke because I could've caused too much damage." Dayton informs, remembering how Kyousuke easily beat him. Knowing that, did Dayton let Kyousuke beat him, or is Kyousuke actually stronger than Dayton? Natsu smiled in response, being happy that Dayton had more than meets the eye. "And I did it because my principle would've held it against me for a long time." Dayton says embarrassed, Natsu looking at him also embarrassed.

"I know how that feels." He says relatively. The magic council back in Magnolia would've done the same thing, since Natsu can't help but destroy everything during his fights. Dayton started getting back into the fight, ready to attack Natsu and show him his true strength.

"You ready Natsu? I'm gonna show you how strong I really am!" Dayton warns. Natsu was smiling in response, ready for any attack Dayton will throw at him. Dayton prepared to start fighting differently, immersing his hands and feet in lava so he can inflict more damage onto Natsu. He ran up, using his magic to attack Natsu in multiple ways. He uses his Lava Dragon's Talon, but doesn't land a successful hit, for Natsu was able to punch right through it with his own Fire Dragon Slayer magic. Dayton was able to block the punch from Natsu using his arms, getting down and using a sweep kick that Natsu easily dodged. This time, however, Dayton used the kick as a decoy for the uppercut that he was hoping to land a hit with. He did manage to hit Natsu with the punch, jumping back afterwards as Natsu landed once more on the ground. Dayton got ready to use another one of his attacks, preparing to fire his Lava Dragon's Roar. You could tell as his cheeks puffed up as if he was sucking lava in. Natsu did the same, preparing to fire his own Fire Dragon's Roar in return. Both roars were fired, as they collided with each other; the Dragon Slayers fighting over a dominance in power. If an imbalance in forces was not resultant in a short amount of time, the pressure would build up and they would simply explode. This was not the case though, for Natsu's roar was slowly pushing through Dayton's, and Dayton realized this. "Oh crap!" Dayton says alarmed. He jumped out of harm's way as Natsu's dragon roar eventually overpowered Dayton's and left a large trail of ashes in the ground. Dayton watched from the sidelines as he saw its after-effects. "Oh man, that was a close one." Dayton says to himself in relief. Natsu was back there laughing with his hands on his hips. Dayton looked at Natsu with a determined attitude. "You like going full out, don't you?"

"That's right! You ready for some more?!" Natsu wonders, pumping his fists together as Dayton charged at Natsu once more.

"Here I come!" Dayton says energetically, as the two dragon slayers clashed once more in their training match.

* * *

While those two were training, the other two Dragon Slayers took it to the next level. They weren't holding back either, but Kyousuke was determined to beat Gajeel, who was desperate to see how strong Kyousuke really was. Kyousuke was fighting using his magic now, managing to hit Gajeel using his electricity. Gajeel could easily feel the large boost in power. The electricity didn't make him tremble, but it felt much clearer. Kyousuke was fighting using multiple techniques, which included alternating between the speed and power of his attacks. Gajeel was blocking some of the attacks and dodging others while still providing Kyousuke with a challenge. Kyousuke took each attack with a reluctance to stop until he wins.

"I've got to hit him using a different type of attack!" Kyousuke thinks to himself, giving himself some distance between Gajeel az he prepares to use his dragon slayer magic. He used his Electric Dragon's Orb against Gajeel, hitting him in the stomach with it. However, it proved ineffective as Gajeel simply grabbed his arm and tossed him into the air; hitting him a number of times before he pushed him back using his Iron Dragon's Club. He grinned while Kyousuke slid back a few feet.

"Yeah. This is more like it." Gajeel says while grinning, popping his knuckles in enjoyment as he noticed Kyousuke holding his right arm and breathing heavily. Kyousuke was surprised that Gajeel was enjoying this so much. He never really thought about the enjoyment of fighting people, except for beating the hell out of them, but then again, Gajeel enjoyed that too. Kyousuke prepared to use his Electric Dragon's Roar against Gajeel, getting ready to fire it as Gajeel took notice. Gajeel wasn't even using his Iron Dragon Scales and was already gaining the upper-hand. He took notice of the Dragon's Roar that Kyousuke was preparing to fire and decided to fire his own Iron Dragon's Roar against it. They both fired at the same time, the Dragon Roars colliding with each other head on. They collided and began to explode as a result, but Kyousuke failed to notice Gajeel's roar catching up to him. The explosion proved to be a distraction that happened by chance. Kyousuke was caught in the blast of the roar as Gajeel finished it off. Pantherlily was still watching from the side, taking note of how Kyousuke went into that Dragon Roar head on. After the Iron Dragon's Roar ended, Gajeel stood there and observed the resulting damage on Kyousuke's body. It was obvious that he tried pushing through the roar instead of escaping from its path, since he was quite battered up. Yet, despite the damage, he continued to stand as if Gajeel was going to make another move. Gajeel decided to stop training until Kyousuke could fight properly again. He knew Kyousuke couldn't handle another blow after stupidly trying to push through that attack.

"Alright, that's enough." Gajeel says calmly. Kyousuke looked up in surprise.

"Wh..What do you mean?"

"We ain't training anymore. You gotta start recovering before we..."

"NO!" Kyousuke shouts angrily, surprising Gajeel, "I'm not stopping."

"Huh?" Gajeel says perplexed. Kyousuke got himself up and stood there, "ready" to fight once more.

"Ridiculous. I won't stop until I beat you!" Kyousuke angrily declares. He wasn't playing around, being desperate to beat Gajeel just to prove his own strength. Gajeel knew that wasn't going to happen, walking up to Kyousuke with his left hand on his hip and the other relaxed by his side. He approached the battered Dragon Slayer and got right up into his face, putting Kyousuke into a mixed state of confusion and persistence. Gajeel could see the hatred seething out of his eyes. It wasn't for Gajeel, but it was for the D-Raided. Had he set a goal for himself in which if he beat Gajeel, he could be the D-Raided? Whatever it was, Gajeel just simply pushed Kyousuke down and watched as Kyousuke helplessly fell to the ground. Kyousuke looked up in shock, not realizing that he could be so easily stopped in his current state.

"Dammit! To think it would be so difficult!" Kyousuke thinks to himself upset. He still was breathing heavily, trying to regain his energy as he started to relax. "Taking a hit from his Dragon's Roar was a stupid idea." Kyousuke thinks to himself in disappointment. Gajeel, still up and going, sat down next to Kyousuke and observed the possible shock that may be roaming through his head. Kyousuke turned his eyes to Gajeel, whom in response grew a smile on his face. Pantherlily got up and walked over to the two, noticing the rare smile that Gajeel had on his face at the time.

"So Gajeel, what do you think of him?" Pantherlily wonders. Gajeel looked up for a few and saw Pantherlily approaching the two of them, before turning back and facing Kyousuke once again. He seemed much calmer this time around.

"He's got guts. He ain't nowhere near my level, but he's no pushover either." Gajeel says with a smile on his face. It was more friendly and encouraging and less ecstatic like with his usual battles, enough to say that he was satisfied. Kyousuke was distraught at not being able to surpass Gajeel, but then thought the situation over again.

"How can I expect to beat him when he clearly has the upper-hand? He's much stronger than I thought." Kyousuke thought to himself annoyed. He realized that his emotional context was getting in the way, making him power-hungry. "I still have to keep getting stronger." Kyousuke thought to himself. While he was determined to eliminate the D-Raided, he knew that his emotions would cloud his vision, and therefore he decided to put it aside for the time being.

* * *

As those two groups trained, Erza and Roxanne continued training themselves. Erza had come after Roxanne with her flight armor, catching her off-guard. Roxanne requipped into her special jet-shoes, enhancing her speed so she could dodge Erza. While it couldn't compare to Erza's flight armor, it was useful enough. Erza watched in surprise as Roxanne took the moment to requip her flame cannon, preparing to fire it at Erza and defeat her. She quickly sped up towards Erza, firing the flame cannon as stream of fire headed straight for her. While Roxanne was able to make contact, Erza quickly sped away and suffocated the flames using the wind-pressure surrounding her. Roxanne saw her quickly gain the advantage, circling around Roxanne multiple times.

"Exactly something she would do. She totally fell for it." Roxanne thought to herself decisively. Erza didn't realize that she ensnared herself into one of Roxanne's traps. She looked down to see that she was caught in quicksand, and that Roxanne had no plans of letting her go.

"She used the flame cannon as a decoy so I would head straight for the quicksand?!" Erza thought to herself shocked. "That's an impressive feat." Roxanne proved to be quite the tactician.

"I hope your ready Erza, this one is one of my specialties." Roxanne said with a smirk on her face. Erza looked at her surprised. Roxanne had requipped away her Earth Cannon and brought out her Fire and Wind cannons. She then started pushing the weapons up against each other, as if she was planning to merge them into a single weapon. However, before she could do that, she realized that Erza had escaped the quicksand and held her at sword's length. Roxanne couldn't believe her eyes as she thought her trap was flawless.

"A good tactic, but your timing could use some work." Erza explained as Roxanne nodded in response. She was a bit dissapointed over the failure of her strategy, but that was soon forgotten when something else that was deemed more important caught her attention. It was the alarm going off for Lucy and Levy. As soon as Roxanne realized that, she instantly requipped away her weaponry and pulled out her PDA. The information on the device gave her the warning of an intruder in the area, one with a high-supply of magic energy. "Oh no." Roxanne said upsettingly. Erza looked at her confused and worried.

"What is it?!"

"It's Lucy and Levy. They're being ambushed!"

"What?!" Erza says shocked. She had to go after them; it could've been the D-Raided after all. "We need to get to them as soon as possible!" Erza shouted in alarm. With that, Erza and Roxanne quickly stormed off to the signal's location. They couldn't waste time letting everyone else know, for Lucy and Levy could be easily kidnapped if they did. Both of them, being in their flight armor and jet-shoes, stormed through the forest. Erza and Roxanne eventually caught up to the intruder behind the ambush, and it was in-fact a member of the D-Raided. This guy, however, had a more radical appearance. His hair was straight and stuck straight out to his left, being a bright shade of purple. He had a pair of bright-purple eyes that matched, and he wore the same outfit as all members of the D-Raided. He had Lucy and Levy held hostage with their mouths taped shut, looking at Erza and Roxanne with excitement. "Let go of them right this instant!" Erza shouted angrily, zooming up to the guy and preparing to deal a blow to him. However, he instantly morphed into a purple liquid and Erza went straight through him as if he was water. Her eyes widened as she landed on the ground ahead of her, turning to see Roxanne throw small shuriken at the guy in response. However, he again morphed into some sort of liquid form and took the attack. Surprisingly enough, the shuriken got trapped within the liquid. Roxanne and Erza looked at the guy in bafflement.

"What the hell?! His body is like some sort of sticky substance!" Roxanne says shocked, watching as the guy launched the shurikens back at her. He was laughing, sounding notably cocky for his voice had some similarities to Natsu's. Erza failed to notice his liquid stuck to her body, only for the guy to use it and toss Erza at Roxanne. She hit her and they both painfully flew into a tree behind them, hearing Lucy and Levy's screams being muffled by the duck-tape.

"What a bunch of crap! I thought a wizard from Earthland was supposed to be more powerful than us so called losers, but they're also just cheap trash!" The guy shouts in dissapointment. After falling to the ground, Erza looked up in fury, noticing how Lucy and Levy were being held hostage as the guy squeezed them for personal enjoyment. Roxanne angrily looked up at the D-Raided guy, angry at his lack of respect and the torture he gave to to Lucy and Levy.

"Let go of them you bastard!" She yelled angrily, only to receive a cocky laugh from the guy in response.

"Like shit I will! Ms. Celestial Wizard here and Ms. Solid Script are vital to our group's plans!" The cocky guy shouted, laughing hysterically once more and angering Erza and Roxanne. Erza got up and proceeded to attack the guy again.

"Let go of them you scoundrel!" She angrily demanded, but the guy simply morphed into a liquid substance and watched as Erza flew through him once again.

"Sorry, but you losers are just too slow." The cocky guy said. Erza and Roxanne looked at him with disgust, watching as he then threw up a silver device that emitted an aqua-colored beam, engulfing the guy and causing him to vanish with Lucy and Levy. Erza and Roxanne were left in shock at the sight of losing Lucy and Levy to the D-Raided. Anger filled Erza like a gas pump, but she wasn't about to go on a rampage. She took her blade and angrily drove it into the ground, filled with unexplainable anger and dissapointment in herself.

"We can't let them get away with this!" Erza shouted angrily, getting up and pulling out a red-flare. "We need to let the others know right away." Roxanne looked at her and agreed, watching Erza light the flare and fire it off into the sky. It explodes into a large red circle, notifying everyone of the present danger. Gajeel, Kyousuke, and Pantherlily easily noticed it. Dayton also noticed it, but got punched in the face by Natsu for the idiot wasn't paying attention to his surroundings. Dayton got up, rubbing his face painfully and letting his powers become dormant. The Lava Dragon scales disappeared from his skin.

"Natsu, what's that red thing in the sky?" Dayton wondered, looking up and pointing at the flare that exploded as Natsu turned around and noticed it himself. Happy flew up and saw it too.

"Oh no Natsu! That's the emergency flare!" He shouted in concern, explaining that they had to get to its location ASAP. Both Natsu and Dayton started to wonder of what might have happened, getting a move on as they headed to Erza and Roxanne's location. Pantherlily also took notice of it.

"An emergency flare?" Pantherlily said surprised. The other two looked up and saw it themselves, and that's when Pantherlily came to the realization. "That's where Lucy and Levy were at!" Pantherlily exclaimed. When Gajeel remembered, he quickly got up and started heading for the flare's location, being concerned about Levy as usual. Pantherlily followed behind as Kyousuke got himself and started following them too. He regained a lot of his energy back, so it wasn't difficult for him to walk. He was more curious than concerned, however. As the others were meeting up at the flare's location, Erza and Roxanne tried to figure out the D-Raided's location and how they got to Lucy and Levy so easily.

"Finding the D-Raided won't be easy," Roxanne explained. "They have special technology that prevents them from being detected through the use of radar."

"Is there any other way you can find out about their location?" Erza asked with a serious tone. Roxanne spent the time hacking away at her PDA, unlocking certain administrator rights and cracking codes.

"Their registry is based off of a typical programming language called D++, so perhaps I can hack into their registry and get data based on their location." Roxanne explained. As she was hacking into their database, Erza was paced back and forth under pressure, wondering how to infiltrate their base once they've located their whereabouts.

"Why would they want Lucy and Levy specifically?" She asked herself. Before she could answer the question, though, the others arrived and saw the two standing there alone.

"What is it Erza?!" Natsu asks concerned. Erza calmly closed her eyes and explained.

"We were ambushed by the D-Raided, and they got Lucy and Levy." She explained in disappointment.

"What?!" Natsu shouted angrily. He became angry, clenching his fists in response. Happy displayed shock, Dayton and Pantherlily displayed surprise, Gajeel wasn't happy, and Kyousuke looked rather serious. Something popped up in Dayton's mind, however, that brought confusion.

"But Erza, why would they want Lucy? She's not like super powerful or anything like that, is she?"

"No, but she's still a comrade of ours." Erza explained calmly, Dayton being confused by her response.

"Yeah, but that doesn't really answer my question." Dayton said confused. Erza continued on, explaining possible reasons for their capture.

"It's possible that it's because she's a celestial wizard, but why would they also want Levy?" Erza wondered. Roxanne looked at Erza with surprise and Kyousuke showed slight surprise himself.

"A Celestial Wizard?" Kyousuke asked confused, searching through his mind for anything related to such. Roxanne also was surprised by this. Dayton, of course, had no clue what they were talking about.

"I've never heard of a celestial wizard before." Roxanne said calmly, surprising everyone with the exception of Kyousuke and Dayton.

"You've never heard of a celestial wizard?" Pantherlily asked in surprise. Roxanne shook her head. She wanted to know more about it though.

"What's so different about a celestial wizard?" Roxanne asks intrigued. Kyousuke had a grasp of what it might be, being somewhat accurate.

"It sounds like it might have to do with celestial constellations and astrology...the twelve signs of the zodiac." Kyousuke explained calmly.

"You're quite perceptive Kyousuke." Erza says with a smile on her face. Kyousuke looked at her calmly. "It does indeed have to do with celestial spirits and the twelve zodiacs, but with the usage of keys." Erza explained. Kyousuke and Roxanne were kind of surprised about this. Dayton, however, wasn't really interested in learning about celestial wizards.

"We can't be wasting time chatting about celestial wizards! We've gotta go save them right now!" Dayton shouted angrily, getting upset along with Natsu since they were just standing there and talking. Kyousuke and Gajeel looked at them like they were idiots and Roxanne rolled her eyes while hacking into the D-Raided database.

"And how are we going to achieve that when we don't even know where they are?" Roxanne questioned in annoyance. Dayton then realized that she had a point and apologized, so that she wouldn't hit him for being a nuisance.

"Stupid." Kyousuke saif annoyed, Dayton becoming offended by such. Gajeel couldn't help but chuckle and Natsu was just too angry to be paying attention to anything. As for Roxanne, she had been successful in hacking into their registry, obtaining the information on their whereabouts. She instantly used a simplistic version of Archive magic to transfer the information into everyone's minds. Upon completion, everyone looked up in surprise when finding out that their location was underground. They had to search for a dome that stuck up from the ground and dig underneath to get to the D-Raided. Roxanne looked up and noticed everyone's reaction.

"Everyone got that?" Roxanne asked calmly, as they all confirm. She smiled in response. She then looked down to see that her PDA was acting strange, glitching as it began to malfunction. "What the..." Roxanne says confused. She then became shocked when seeing the PDA go through a self-destruct sequence, dislaying a timer for only five seconds. It announced it in its own robotic voice.

"Self-Destruction in 5...4..." it said, putting everyone in a state of alarm.

"It's going to explode!"

"Give me that!" Natsu shouted angrily, grabbing the device from Roxanne and chucking it into the sky, watching as the device exploded into pieces. Everyone was full of confusion and surprise as they saw the pieces fall to the ground. Roxanne was particularly upset.

"Noo! That PDA cost me $500!" Roxanne said upsettingly. She put her head in her hands and started displaying signs of stress. Erza looked at her concerned, knowing of how horrible it was when her cake was thrown on the floor in her guild, so she went over and comforted her.

"I know how disappointing that is. I'll buy you a new one once we're finished with the mission, okay?" Erza said, comforting her as Roxanne could only nod in response.

"$500?" Gajeel asked confused as Kyousuke explains that it's equivalent to 50,000 jewels. "She'd pay that much for some device?" Gajeel said in confusion as Kyousuke just shruged his shoulders in response. They all watched as a distraught Roxanne was comforted by Erza. Once Roxanne was comforted back to normal, Pantherlily suggested that they go after the D-Raided and find the base.

"We don't know what they plan on doing with Lucy and Levy, so we should start heading after them as soon as possible." Pantherlily explained. Everyone was in agreement, and they decided that they go right now. It was time, and Kyousuke's revenge was near being realized.


	14. Chapter 14: Entering the Base

Chapter 14: Entering the Base

Since Lucy and Levy were kidnapped by the D-Raided, the entire group was desperate to go after them. They were currently at the dome that marked their location, since the base was somehow underground. The trip there wasn't that difficult thanks to the Archive Magic Roxanne had used. The dome's outer structure was supported by silver plates, along with black plates that gave its look some variety. As for the group, they sat there coming up with multiple strategies for the invasion; well, at least Roxanne and Erza were. Everyone else didn't care for a strategy, Natsu and Dayton obviously. Kyousuke was never one to come up with strategies, unless he was serious, and Gajeel didn't seem to care about them either.

"We should first figure out how to get into the base." Roxanne calmly suggested. The base was underground, so everyone came up with a strategy to get down into the base. Only two of them would actually work, however.

"I'll just melt the ground and get us down there!" Dayton said confidently, proceeding to melt a hole the ground with his lava. Natsu tried to punch through the ground, which would obviously never work. Happy just watched him fail every time. Erza requipped into a digging suit, using a shovel to dig into the ground; and Kyousuke tried getting there using his chokuto and electricity. None of those worked, which left the two other wizards with ideas that were realistic enough to produce a satisfying result. Well, maybe Erza's would've worked, if they had the time. Roxanne requipped her earth cannon and began compressing the ground into pure dirt, allowing them to jump right through it, and Gajeel morphed his arms into pick-axes and started digging through the ground. Pantherlily stood by and observed Gajeel as he went to work. Erza's shovel broke on her upon ramming it into the ground with too much force, leaving her somewhat embarrassed. She played it off as if nothing had happened, despite Kyousuke rolling his eyes. Natsu's approach failed instantly, yet he still continued punching the ground anyway (it relieved stress). Dayton's lava only sat there on the ground and burned into ashes, which did absolutely nothing positive for them, and Kyousuke's efforts were futile, so he gave up, knowing that he would never get anywhere through those attempts. He walked over to Gajeel and sat down in-front of him while Gajeel dug into the ground. Dayton looked over and saw Kyousuke watching, and got mad since he wasn't helping out with the digging.

"Look at you!" Dayton shouted with a cocky attitude. He was pointing at Kyousuke in a condescending manner, who in return just stared at him with an annoyed expression on his face.

"You're just sitting there and letting us do all the work! Ha! You're not better than me!" Dayton pridefully stated. Kyousuke looked at Dayton annoyed, noticing something peculiar about the lava that Dayton was using to burn a hole in the ground.

"At least I'm not stupid enough to let a forest fire happen." Kyousuke said annoyed. Dayton looked at him with an angry expression. He didn't get what Kyousuke was getting at, not noticing the fire that was starting from his lava.

"Oh yeah, and who does that?!" Dayton asked. Kyousuke, uninterested in arguing with him, turned and looked back at Gajeel with an irritated expression on his face.

"DAYTON!" Roxanne screamed, angrily running over to the lava as the fire started to spread. It was spreading extremely fast, already making contact with a couple trees as it continued. Erza and Roxanne quickly got to the fire and put it out, using their flame-empress armor and wind-cannon respectively. Natsu became upset since he couldn't eat the fire now, but that wasn't important, for Dayton wasn't going to be getting away with this.

"What did I tell you about using your magic?" Erza angrily asked, looking at Dayton with a demanding expression on her face. Dayton started looking at Kyousuke regretfully.

"Hey there pal, can you help me?" Dayton pleaded. Kyousuke looked at Dayton with an annoyed expression on his face, simply closing his eyes as Gajeel stopped digging and looked up to see what was happening around him.

"No." Kyousuke said calmly. Dayton looked at him shocked.

"But why?!" Dayton shouts regretfully, Roxanne getting ahold of him and beating the crap out of him for burning down the forest. Had they been caught, they would've all been pressed with charges, including the mages from Magnolia. Gajeel looked at them in confusion, seeing Dayton being punished by Roxanne while Natsu was lectured by Erza.

"What a bunch of morons." He says irritated, getting back to digging as Kyousuke continued to watch him. He saw how Gajeel was all about the task at hand. It was quite interesting for some reason, and Kyousuke felt a connection surface. Gajeel kept digging, but eventually hit something metallic and stopped, realizing he struck gold. "What the hell?" Gajeel said surprised, brushing the dirt away to reveal a giant sheet of metal underneath. Kyousuke looked at it curiously.

"A sheet of metal?"

"Bet it ain't as strong as my Iron Dragon Scales." Gajeel said with a grin on his face. He punched straight through the metal with ease, tearing a hole through the metal and revealing a room underneath that. He punched through the sheet to expand the hole's size so they all could get through. Erza and Roxanne approached the two and looked to see what was inside of the hole themselves. Natsu and a beaten up Dayton followed from behind. Inside the hole, they could only see a red surface engraved with a hexagon-like pattern. Natsu tried jumping in from where he was out of excitement, but Erza simply grabbed him and prevented him from doing so. Dayton became baffled and felt unfairly judged since Natsu didn't get beat up by Erza.

"But why?! He never seems to get hit for anything!" Dayton thought to himself annoyed. He had no idea. When Erza looked back at the hole, she saw that the other three had already jumped in and did so herself. Natsu jumped in behind her as Dayton followed. Upon landing, they looked around and observed the area they were in. It happened to be the room that controlled all the mechanics and electronics within the base. A myriad of controls and devices coated the room, being supported by a large screen that was connected to superveillance cameras located throughout the base. Roxanne went up to the machinery and tried programming it to display the other locations within the base, since there were too many cameras to be displayed on the screen.

"I can find out their location if I program the computer to display any cameras that have captured some sort of movement." Roxanne said calmly, easily hacking the system. She modified different registry entries to disable the administrator password requirement, allowing her to gain access to the BIOS and take control of the machine. As she was doing so, Kyousuke was suddenly flooded with darkness. He wasn't scared, but his hatred began to grow. The emotions were intense, but he had to control himself. He knew that he would cause commotion within the group had he suddenly went off after the D-Raided, so he didn't. It wasn't that he didn't want to though, oh no. Eventually, Roxanne managed to hack into the security cameras, using them to locate where Lucy and Levy were. "Room 46, 47, 48..." She said, scrolling through all the rooms until she got to room 51. When it came to this room in specific, she saw that Lucy and Levy were unconscious, being dragged by a rope to a location they were unaware of. The sight of them being dragged enraged Natsu. He was visibly angry as always, but this time, he was ready to take them down.

"Those bastards! They're gonna pay!" Natsu shouted angrily, running into one of the doors on the right, unintentionally averting everyone's attention, filled with confusion and/or shock.

"Natsu wait! What are you doing?!" Erza shouted out, unable to get his attention as he ran off. Happy had flown behind him, following him and also losing contact with the others, causing Erza much frustration. "Dammit! What a fool!" Erza said angrily, looking at Dayton with a commanding presence. "Dayton. Go after Natsu and stay with him. The group will split up and go searching for them individually. Roxanne and I will go down the path over to the right, while you three: Gajeel, Pantherlily and Kyousuke; will go down the path behind this machinery." Erza explained. Everyone instantly agreed (despite Kyousuke being insulted at being given "orders"), instantly heading off in their assigned directions within the base. Dayton ran as fast as he could, trying to catch up to Natsu and Happy; while Erza and Roxanne went into the door directly behind them; and the other three went into the door directly opposite of the machinery. Dayton saw Natsu and Happy ahead, running even faster to catch up.

"Hey guys, wait up!" Dayton shouted while rushing to them. Happy stopped, turning around as Natsu did the same. They both saw Dayton approaching, trying to catch up to them. Natsu suddenly smiled out of inner joy. However, Dayton was suddenly caught off-guard when he was almost hit with a red beam. Dayton managed to barely dodge it, watching in bewilderment as the beam burned into the ground. Natsu and Happy looked at him perplexed.

"Whoa, what was that?!" Happy wondered in surprise. Dayton looked at them shocked, realizing the beams where coming from security cameras that identified them as intruders.

"Watch out, those are lasers!" Dayton warned. Natsu looked up and around him to see laser sights aimed directly at him. Then the lasers went off, prompting Natsu to dodge them as they too missed and hit the ground. However, even more lasers were set off, forcing the whole group to dodge them. The room itself was a mere replica of laser tag, only this time it was for real. One of the beams hit Natsu's shoulder, burning a hole through his vest and actually "burning" him.

"Oww! What the heck?!" Natsu said a bit surprised. How could a laser possibly burn the Fire Dragon Slayer was the question. They continued dodging the lasers until Natsu got frustrated and fired a fire dragon's roar thoughout the entire room. He engulfed the security cameras within his flames and destroyed them, causing them to explode and fall apart. Dayton managed to use his Lava Dragon Scales as a form of protection, watching as Natsu stood there, proud of himself.

"Wow Natsu, you did it!" Happy said surprised, praising him as always. However, that soon ended when the alarms throughout the entire building went off, alerting everyone of the "intruders" in the building.

"Warning! Warning! Intruders detected. 6 mages and two unidentified creatures have been located in the facility. This is not a drill!" The machine went off about.

"What?!" Dayton said shocked. They weren't the only ones in bafflement.

"How did they detect us so easily?!" Roxanne said, thinking that she may have forgotten to take precautionary measures when having hacked into their machinery.

"Dammit! I bet it was that moron Salamander's fault!" Gajeel said angrily. Back to Natsu's group, Dayton was suddenly sent into alarm. He ran up to Natsu and grabbed his arm, pulling him out of the room, for he assumed the room would be sent into a lock-down procedure. He would be correct, for the two doors in the room were closing. The three managed to safely get through one of the doors as it shut behind them and locked itself.

"That was a close one." Dayton said in relief. He took a deep breath and turned to his left to see that there was someone standing there, much to his dismay.

"Oh wow. It's you two losers again." A voice said, causing Natsu and Dayton to look up in surprise. There they saw the same D-Raided member that ambushed them after their time at the hot springs. He was standing there in the same girly fashion, despite being a guy.

"Ugh, it's you again!" Dayton said angerily. The guy smiled deceivingly, twirling his finger around as a light blue substance started being purged from it. You could still see the white light as usual, but what was happening was currently unexplainable. Suddenly, Happy started to panic as Natsu and Dayton turned to him in fright. He was being warped in space, like he was being pulled through some sort of portal. It was enough to provoke Natsu, for he focused his anger on the guy, who held Happy in his hands like a doll.

"Didn't expect that, did ya?" The guy said while looking at the two with a sinister expression. This only made Natsu even angrier.

"You give him back right now!" He angrily demanded. The guy only laughed while holding a fearful Happy.

"Sorry, your little doll cat is mine now."

"HE'S NOT A DOLL!" Natsu shouted angrily, preparing to attack while the guy managed to stop him beforehand. He hit Natsu and blasted him with a burst of wind, sending him flying into the door painfully.

"Natsu!" Dayton shouted in shock, watching as Natsu fell back on his feet.

"What the heck was that?!"

"My wind you ignoramus. It's much too good for your pathetic flames." The guy cockily explained. The two dragon slayers looked at him angrily, getting ready to fight him on the spot. The D-Raided member instantly assumed that they would be a piece of cake, but he would be wrong. He started the fight off by using his finger to blast a large gust of wind at the two, forcing them to defend themselves against it. They looked up afterwards to find that he dissapeared. They both looked around in confusion, wondering where he went. Instead of finding him, however, they heard his voice echo across the room.

"They call me Aerolin cause I use air magic. I don't think my air is suited for your fire Natsu Dragneel." Aerolin explained, causing Natsu to get annoyed in response.

"Quit hiding and come out and fight me!" Natsu angrily demanded, impatiently running around and searching for Aerolin.

"Oh, okay. If you really want to die, that's fine by me." Aerolin said with some sort of gratitude. Suddenly, a large gust of wind was weaved behind Natsu, painfully blasting him in the back. He angrily spun, noticing Aerolin come at him with wind-covered fists. Natsu attacked with his flames, intending to burn him down by using the wind as a fuel. While it was a useful strategy, it didn't go as planned. Much to Natsu's shock, when he did clash with the Aerolin's fist, it didn't fuel the flames as one would originally expect. It only extinguished the flames like some sort of fire hydrant.

"What the heck?!"

"I told you my air wasn't suited for your pathetic flames!" Aerolin said with a smirk on his face, putting a finger on Natsu's chest and exerting an extreme amount of pressure on that point. It blasted Natsu back as Dayton watched in shock. Seeing this for himself, Dayton got up and went after Aerolin, emersing himself in lava as he prepared to attack him. Aerolin then switched his fighting style and resorted to hand-to-hand combat, knowing that his wind would not have much of an effect on Dayton's lava. Dayton threw a downwards punch before preparing to land an uppercut to the chest, watching as Aerolin easily dodged his attacks. Aerolin kneed Dayton in the chest, causing the latter to back away in order to craft a new strategy. However, Aerolin was just too quick, aiming his finger at Dayton and blasting him, sending him flying into the wall behind him.

"Even if you're not the one I'm supposed to retrieve, you're still gonna be fun to toss around." Aerolin taunted whilst laughing, watching as Dayton slid down from the side of the wall. The former still held Happy as a hostage; the exceed being worried over Natsu's well-being. Natsu got up and attacked with hand-to-hand combat once again, throwing multiple punches at an incredible rate. Aerolin managed to dodge everyone of them by using his wind to drive Natsu's fists away from him. This resulted in Natsu missing each time he tried to hit him, which only continued to frustrate him. It was obvious that he wanted instant results.

"Dammit! Why don't you quit being a wimp and fight me!" Natsu angrily taunted. Aerolin blasted a gust of wind into his side in a fit of rage, sending him flying to his left.

"Wimp?! How dare you insult my physique!" Aerolin angrily shouted. Dayton looked at him confused, for he kept dancing around the room as if he was a ballerina, continously mocking the two. Natsu just watched him angrily, but it only began to confuse Dayton. "I may seem like a girl, but I'm no wimp. What a putrid word! It merely disgusts me to the bitter end!" Aerolin said, having almost caused Dayton to puke. There wasn't a nearby bathroom or any toilets, so he refrained himself from regurgitating the food he ate earlier. It became increasingly difficult when Aerolin began to flirt with the two, as if what he was doing wasn't strange enough. Aerolin had been fortunate enough to have these two as his opponents, since they were more prone to fall into confusion rather than anger. Eventually, Dayton started to get impatient and got ready to fight once more, pumping his fists together whilst catching Aerolin's attention.

"Whatever you are, I'm still gonna stop you!" Dayton angrily declared, attacking Aerolin with his lava dragon scales once more. Aerolin easy dodged each attack that was thrown at him, increasing Dayton's frustration. He couldn't understand why it was so easy for Aerolin to avoid his attacks. It was quite perplexing. Unable to hit him at the moment, he stopped and began to think about how Natsu would've approached this obstacle. "I know Natsu can hit him, so how can I?" Dayton thought to himself. This was when he decided to use his brain, igniting his intelligence for once. He noticed how Natsu threw multiple punches at an incredible speed, but Dayton was already capable of that. He deleved into it even further, thinking of the various ways Natsu incorporated his magic with hand-to-hand combat. During his short period of mental analysis, he was caught off-guard by Aerolin, who was going to land a hit to the face in response. Dayton snapped back into reality fast enough to dodge the punch, having realized what he was doing wrong. He needed to put in more effort. Simple, but useful. He encased his hands in lava and attacked, managing to hit Aerolin in the chest with one of his punches. It was also in the exact same spot as last time, causing even more pain for Aerolin than he would've imagined.

"Ah shit, what the hell!" Aerolin shouted painfully. The Lava stuck to him like glue, burning through his clothing into his chest as the pain continued to intensify.

"Get out of our way!" Dayton angrily demanded, letting go and letting the lava continue to burn Aerolin. He then kicked Aerolin in the chest again, avoiding Happy and forcing Aerolin to drop the exceed. Happy joyfully started running towards Natsu whilst Aerolin was being blasted back. Sliding across the ground, Aerolin started to grow an intense rage in response to the pain he was forced to endure.

"You bitch!" Aerolin angrily yelled. He continued to think about that one woman who appeared at the hot springs, having always been called a loser by her. The amount of hatred he held for her was tremendous; he continuously fantasized over her death. "I'll kill you before I lose!" Aerolin angrily declared, turning the tables and attacking Happy with his wind. Blasting him against wall angrily, his rage took over as he shot after Natsu. Natsu watched in horror as Happy was painfully blasted against the wall, being knocked unconscious and triggering Natsu's rage. Surprisingly enough, Aerolin seemed to be just as angry. His sudden rage resulted in a enormous gust of wind engulfing the entire room, just as Natsu watched, enraged himself. Aerolin flew at Natsu at high speed, but Natsu blocked Aerolin's punch by grabbing his fist. It was as if Natsu witnessed his own rage in a physical form, realizing he was equally at odds with Aerolin.

"Is that how you TREAT OTHERS?!" Natsu angrily questioned, the other being too enraged to care.

"Fuck your stupid friends! I'm not losing to a bunch of WIMPS!" Aerolin angrily shouted. Wind vs. Fire, both full of fury. Dayton witnessed what was taking place from behind. He was also angry, but he was currently held up with the extreme amount of wind, too distracted to see Natsu. As they struggled, the other two groups were about to experience a great horror before them...


	15. Chapter 15: Memory Whiplash

Chapter 15: Memory Whiplash

As the invasion of the base had begun, mainly since Dayton and Natsu tripped the trap, the D-Raided scattered throughout the building in search of the intruders. Since the cameras were broken, there was no way of knowing where anyone was. Because of this, everyone was forced to find their way throughout the base on their own, and this would provoke quite the interesting search. As Natsu and Dayton fought against Aerolin, everyone else was searching for Lucy and Levy, unaware of the trouble they would soon run into. Gajeel, Pantherlily, and Kyousuke ran into quite the dilemma within the base themselves, had it not been for its strange layout. It was difficult to wrap one's head around, even for Kyousuke. Because they had no idea how to navigate this mental disaster, they decided to book it and hope for the best. They ran into a two-way path at first, deciding to take the right path to start, and they alternated onward. However, they became increasingly frustrated as their strategy led to no real results. They eventually stopped within an area that contained three different pathways.

"_I don't remember anything like this_." Kyousuke thought to himself calmly while observing the three different pathways. As hard as he tried, he couldn't remember this area before, and he didn't know why. He just stood there in wonder while Pantherlily and Gajeel tried figuring out which path they should go down next. Nothing about them stood out, except for that there were three of them.

"What the hell is up with this place; it feels like I'm navigating through a giant maze." Gajeel said in irritation.

"You would think that they would have a more organized layout of the building." Pantherlily added on in agreement. Perhaps that's why they had so many cameras in the first place. Aside from those two, Kyousuke just stood there trying to remember everything he could about the place, furthermore how to navigate through it. It would've been much easier had he actually remembered this place from before.

"_When the hell did this place exist?"_Kyousuke wondered to himself confused. He looked up at the pathway closest to his right and noticed something unusual; a white swirl covered the pathway's entrance. Kyousuke headed towards it as the other two watched, wondering what he was doing. He went to touch the white space, but his hand went through it as if it was just air. He still didn't get it, and this discovery only added another piece to the already confusing puzzle.

"What is this supposed to be? It's like some sort of projection." Kyousuke told himself calmly. Overhearing it, Pantherlily looked at the other two pathways, noticing that the white swirl on this specific entrance wasn't present with the other two. As Kyousuke proceeded to walk through the white swirl out of curiosity, Gajeel looked up above the entrance and noticed a large tube bolted into the wall. It was connected to each entrance and contained a sort of green energy above the entrance that Kyousuke walked into specifically. After Kyousuke proceeded through it, the energy suddenly vaporized and the three heard a loud saw-like noise resonate throughout the room. Kyousuke and Gajeel instantly realized it was a trap, and Gajeel quickly went after Kyousuke. However, the entrance shut itself down after Kyousuke passed through it and separated the two from each other.

"Dammit!" Gajeel shouted angrily, trying to punch through the door as it worked to no avail. Each time he tried punching the door, a white swirl reminiscent from before would appear, blocking him from making contact with the door. He continued to try punching through it in the hopes of breaking through, only to end up with the same result. After so many attempts, he eventually stopped, knowing that he wouldn't get through the door with the shield in place. Kyousuke on the other side simply touched the door, seeing the shield and instantly realizing that there was no point in trying to break through it. He turned around and decided to do some of his own work, seeing this as an opportunity that he should take advantage of.

_"This place is a mess, but it guess it gives me an excuse to go off on my own for once. I'm going to kill everyone that deserves to die in this hellhole."_ Kyousuke thought to himself sadistically. This would be the perfect opportunity for him to take down the D-Raided by force, eliminating everyone involved in the group without having to worry about being prevented from doing such. With that, he went on in search of his prey. On the other-hand, Gajeel just got more frustrated. He knew what Kyousuke was going to do since he was alone, but then there was also Levy with her situation.

"What are you going to do about it Gajeel?" Pantherlily calmly asked, easily picking up on his frustration. It's not that Gajeel was worried about him going off and killing everyone within the base, but it was more so that Kyousuke would find himself in a hopeless situation due to his impulsiveness. Gajeel knew that Kyousuke was easily susceptible to being influenced by his own hatred and let it take control of him without restraint, but he couldn't worry about him at the moment. He knew that he was strong enough to take care of himself, and besides, Levy was in danger.

"Looks like we're gonna have to split up from here." Gajeel explained. If they kept taking the same route together, they would get nowhere. With that, Pantherlily got ready to head down the farthest left path as Gajeel took the middle path.

"I'll leave it to you Gajeel." Pantherlily said calmly. Gajeel only grinned in response as they both looked ahead and headed their own separate ways.

As for Kyousuke, he was running throughout the base with his chokuto in hand, ready to take out anyone who stepped in his way. In his quest for his prey he transformed into a bolt of electricity, flying down the pathway until he found himself inside a large room. Reverting back to normal and walking in, he found himself surrounded by boxes and packaging, prompting him to remember where he was.

_"This place...it's the storage room. It looks like they've got a lot more equipment now, don't they?"_ Kyousuke thought to himself calmly. He slowly walked around, observing it all until something strange caught his attention.

"Hey there pretty boy!" A flirtatious voice said, prompting Kyousuke to look up in confusion. Before his eyes he saw a glamorous woman sitting on one of the boxes in the storage room that sat up the highest. She was wearing the same D-Raided outfit as everyone else and was holding a large machine gun in her hand with a laser sight attached to it. She had shiny, straight white hair that curled inward on the ends and went halfway-down her neck, along with bright pink lipstick that gave away her interest in fashion. The woman, being interested in Kyousuke from the start, went on to talk about Kyousuke's attractive qualities before getting down to business. "Oh man, you look so handsome. Would you care to chat with me a bit?" She asked seductively as she winked, only to be shunned by Kyousuke.

"I'm not wasting my time with you; I've got more important things to do." Kyousuke spat in annoyance, the girl looking at him with a decisive look on her face.

"Wasting your time or not, I still think you should talk. I would like that, especially from you." The woman explained in a sexy voice. She proceeded to put a finger on her cheek and wink again, trying to lure him to her as he only became more irritated, going off yet again before Kyousuke could respond. "I once heard that there was someone who killed one of our leaders. Let's see, our leader's name was _Dr. Kryptek_." She explained glamorously. Kyousuke's heartbeat suddenly jumped, beating to the speed of the memories that came flying back to him. "Do you know him?"

"I don't have time to beat around the bush. Yeah, I know him, but I'm not telling you shit." Kyousuke told her, standing his ground. Hearing that, the girl instantly aimed her gun at him.

"Well, if you don't...I, Felicia Airstorm, will shoot you down." She warned flirtatiously. She looked at Kyousuke through her sights and, having him on lock-on, blew a kiss to him before pulling the trigger. Firing the weapon resulted in an unusually large projectile being sent towards Kyousuke ridiculously fast, instantly blowing up upon making contact and resulting in a large explosion. She calmly watched the smoke mask the area and create a new sight for, blowing away the smoke coming from the tip of her gun as she looked down. Much to her surprise, Kyousuke wasn't in her sight. "Oh my! Where is he?!"

"I would be careful about those shots," Kyousuke warned arrogantly, "You might hurt yourself."

"Ugh! Shut up!" Felicia shouted in frustration, firing another shot at Kyousuke and missing yet again. It hit the wall and exploded, blowing a hole in the wall with ease. She continued to fire off at him as Kyousuke ran around dodging the bullets. "You may be hot, but no one sasses me around!" She proclaimed with a smirk on her face, Kyousuke putting a smirk on his face in response.

"Oh really?" Kyousuke said deviously, running up to her and attacking with a large wave of electricity as she shot it with her weapon. The bullet sucked the wave into itself and transformed into an electric bullet, flying at Kyousuke as he dodged in time. "_It absorbed my magic energy?"_Kyousuke thought to himself surprised, watching as it exploded and created a net of electricity. Kyousuke turned and watched as the electricity dissipated, looking back up at the woman who was starting to gain an advantage over him.

"My bullets absorb elemental magic energy. Using electricity against me is just useless hottie, even if you spark my interest within me." She explained while shaking her finger. Unbeknownst to her, a large wave of electricity came flying towards her from directly behind, hitting her in the back for she had too little time to react. It was enough to send her flying off of the box she was sitting on and onto the ground where Kyousuke was just standing. Holding her burned back in pain, she turned and got a glimpse of Kyousuke standing on the wall behind her. He was using his chokuto to hold himself on the wall, that is, before he took it out and let himself fall to the ground. He walked over to the ledge to see Felicia on the ground below, seeing her helpless before him.

"I don't remember you from the last time I was here, but anyone who works for the D-Raided doesn't deserve mercy." Kyousuke stated whilst giving her a death-stare. Felicia looked up at him angrily, not being intimidated by him and his desire to eliminate her.

"You little bitch! I'm a woman; how dare you! You don't even have any respect for women, do you?!" She shouted angrily. Kyousuke just continued to stare her down, despite her complaints. He was even amused by her trying to throw out excuses to defend herself from him. Kyousuke had one goal, and he was going to achieve it regardless of the possible consequences.

"Ha! Honestly, you'd scare off more guys than you could count; I would never respect you. Besides, it won't matter when I take you out." Kyousuke explained, taking his chokuto and holding it sideways. With that, he prepared to eliminate her using a special technique of his, prompting her to freak out in response.

"I can't believe you! You would kill ME?!" She yelled in disbelief. Honestly, Felicia though she was so great that it was simply preposterous to disrespect her like this. In response to Kyousuke's advances, she quickly crawled over to her gun and grabbed it, shakily aiming it at Kyousuke and firing it off. Instead of hitting him though, it hit the ceiling and caused the room to collapse in on itself. Kyousuke looked up in surprise, seeing the debris falling from the ceiling and proceeding to leave through the hole that Felicia blew open. Surprisingly enough, he wasn't that frustrated with not having a chance to take her out.

"_I don't need to worry about her; she wasn't my prime target. I've got different members to kill._" Kyousuke thought to himself calmly. He turned into a bolt of electricity and bolted off. Back in the room, Felicia got up and ran out, saving herself. She felt humiliated, despite no one else watching, and was desperate to get back at him for "ridiculing" her.

"Damn that punk, telling me that I scare everyone away. He doesn't know that I can get anyone I want and all it takes is a bit of charm." She said angrily and somehow flirtatiously at the same time. Holding her gun in one hand, Felicia walked down the pathway that she was in and went in search of the other intruders within the building.

* * *

As that event ensued, Erza and Roxanne had troubles of their own. The two managed to come upon a small metal door with a large wheel on it. They both stopped and took the time to read what the door said, since they noticed a sign bolted to it.

"Apparently, this must be the garden." Roxanne pointed out. On the door, there was a sign that said _Garden_ on it. Both Roxanne and Erza were iffy about going inside, but they decided to take the chance. Roxanne walked up and tried turning the wheel on the door, but it was tightly sealed. She couldn't get it open. "This wheel is sealed pretty tight, I can't get it to open." Roxanne explained. Erza then also tried tried opening it to no avail, followed by them both trying to open it. No matter what they did though, the wheel wouldn't budge.

"This thing _is_ tight." Erza said surprised. With no other alternative at hand, the two just decided to blast through the door. Erza blasted the door open using her Black Wing armor, blasting it off of its hinges with a single strike. With that out of the way, they both ran inside, looking around and picking up upon all the strange plants within the room. It was like a Bio-Organic research lab. There were all sorts of mutated plants within this steam-filled room. A lot of the plants looked rather inhumane, and it managed to creep-out Erza and Roxanne rather easily.

"All of these plants; they've been mutated beyond normal human standards. What kind of monsters are these people?!" Erza said in disgust, having to walk through a room full of mutations trying to eat the two of them. It was so bad to her that she couldn't feel much regret in slicing their heads off when they tried to eat her, more worried about their future plans if she saw this in their base. "_If they've done this kind of experimentation, what will they do to Lucy and Levy_?!" She thought to herself in worry. Erza didn't want to find out, simply because what they had done to these plants was far more inhumane than she expected. If these were plants, green like the color of nature was far from what one would described them. They looked like monsters in plant-form, ready to eat anything they could get their grasp on. Roxanne was also disgusted, but she had other things on her mind. Kyousuke, first of all, was on her mind, but it wasn't just him that bothered her.

As they walked into the main part of the room, their disgust would soon turn into horror without a second thought. As Roxanne walked in, she looked up to see a certain somone being hung on the wall by his neck. The very sight of the person alone inflicted memories that surged back to her that revolved around this person alone. The glacier, the white hair, the appearance; it was _that_ person. With everything, all the memories, coming back to her so fast, she could only be overwhelmed and become horrified as a result. She soon noticed the cuts and scars on his neck, and the fact that he was being hung up by a rope was horrifying enough. Everything was so vivid, the scars she saw on him were so potent that she felt them on herself. She couldn't take it, it was too much. Roxanne started to tremble, the feeling of horror overtaking her faster than she could handle, and the memories surging back to her faster than she could take. She was losing it.

"AAAAAAAAAAGGGGGHHHHH!" She screamed in complete horror, falling to the ground and she started to curl up in fear. Erza became filled with shock and confusion upon hearing her scream, running over to Roxanne and trying to help her out.

"What is it?! What's wrong Roxanne?!" Erza shouted in horror, trying to help her up to no avail. Roxanne kept trembling out of terror and Erza couldn't stop it, prompting her to turn around in wonder of what could've caused such a tragedy. Erza slowly turned around, being met with the same sight that Roxanne just saw. "What?! What happened?!" Erza said in shock. She didn't earn a response from Roxanne. Erza, still in massive confusion, slowly looked to her right and became horrified herself at another sight. It was a dark-blue haired wizard being hung next to the other wizard, being just as battered up as the former. Erza couldn't believe her eyes, he was there too. "No..." She said, getting up and squinting her eyes at the guy being hung to realize it really was who she thought. "GRAY!" Erza screamed, trying to wake him up as Roxanne still trembled in shock. There was much more to her pain than meets the eye. Erza kept shouting out to Gray. "WAKE UP GRAY! This is an emergency!" Erza yelled, but Gray was still unconscious.

"They won't wake up." A calm voice informed. Erza looked up angrily to see someone floating between the two unconscious wizards. "It's utterly pointless. You might as well move on before I take you for myself as well."

"So you were responsible for this, is that right?" Erza angrily demanded, preparing to fight. The guy that was floating just gave her a blank stare, being completely detached from emotions all together.

"You should know the answer Erza Scarlet." The guy said, surprising Erza when he said her name.

"Wha...how do you know my name?"

"I know about all of you. Roxanne Laurel, Kyousuke Watanabe, Gajeel Redfox, Dayton Surogaki and Natsu Dragneel; even Lucy Heartfilia and Levy McGarden, along with your exceed friends Happy and Pantherlily." The guy explained. Erza was shocked to hear that he knew all their names, but she didn't even know how he figured it out. "You know what's interesting is despite the fact that you and Roxanne were born on two different worlds, you two seem to be like pieces of a puzzle. Put you two together, and the puzzle is complete." The guy explained with invigorating curiosity, observing Gray and the other wizard. Erza became easily confused.

"What are you saying? What's so surprising about the two of us?" She asked calmly, the guy going on to explain.

"As you can see, you have easily become good friends with Roxanne Laurel, which means you're connected to her somehow through Earthland and the world we live in. The same goes for your two friends here: Axel Pagetonas and Gray Fullbuster." The guy explained. Shock filled up Erza as she began to realize why everyone was getting along more with someone in specific.

"Does that mean..."

"You're quick on the uptake. Kyousuke Watanabe is connected to Gajeel Redfox and Dayton Surogaki is connected to Natsu Dragneel. I'm sure there are a bunch more connections to make, but we haven't seen them just yet. Don't you think that's fascinating?" The guy explained with captivating interest. He began floating around Gray and Axel, observing them as Erza became annoyed in doing so.

"Even so, what purpose does that serve here?" Erza asked in wonder, the guy looking at her as he calmly gave out the reason.

"No reason really. It's interesting, but it won't matter when I get the chance to kill them permanently and steal their powers for my own good. With their power I can increase the power of this entire organization, just like I've done with all the other dragon slayers that have come." The guy explained, aggravating Erza and engaging her in battle.

"Damn you, I should've known! I won't let you get away with this!" Erza shouted angrily, requipping into her flight armor and instantly engaging in battle. The guy managed to get a move on and flew around the place as Erza went after him. In her Flight Armor, she used the Sonic Claw against him, slashing him multiple times in multiple directions. However, the attack was rendered useless as the guy managed to fly away without any sort of side effects. Erza tried going after him, but was hindered when suddenly feeling a sharp pain shoot through her. Screaming, she fell down and landed on the ground painfully, not knowing how she was hit.

"My magic reflects attacks with physical weapons against the user. It doesn't matter what attack you use with those swords; it'll only be reflected back against you." The guy explained. Erza realized he was right when she looked down onto her stomach and saw cut marks, marks that should've been made on the guy she was attacking. Knowing this, she had to come up with a new strategy since attacking with her swords would do her no good. She turned around and focused on Axel and Gray, heading to them and cutting them free off the ropes, much to her opponent's surprise. Roxanne was still on the ground, trying to get up after hearing what had just happened, but she wouldn't be able to catch Axel and Gray in time. The guy shot a white ball of light at Erza in order to stop her, but Erza dodged it in time and headed for Axel and Gray. As the white ball hit the ground and exploded, Erza caught Axel and Gray and ran to Roxanne with them.

"You need to get them out of here as soon as possible!" Erza urged. Roxanne tried to get herself up without trembling once more.

"But what about you Erza?!"

"I'll be fine, just go!" Erza urged once again, quickly getting back to taking the D-Raided member out. Roxanne tried pulling the two of them out of the room, but they were far too heavy for her. With that traumatic moment she just went through, her strength was weakened somewhat, making it much more difficult for her than it should've been. The D-Raided member observed her struggle and was easily able to come to a conclusion on the matter.

"You know what, the memory removal process must've had a bigger toll on her than expected." He analyzed in surprise. However, his analysis was put to an end when Erza flew up once more and prepared to take him down. The guy fired off small orb of white light at her that she easily dodged. Erza requipped into her Morning Star armor, preparing to use a technique that wouldn't involve physical objects touching him.

"Morning Star: Photon Slicer!" She shouted, aiming her sabers at the guy as a large yellow ball of energy formed. It compressed after gaining enough energy and was fired at the guy, hitting his arm and severely burning it. He managed to protect the rest of his body with the use of his magic, but his left arm was going to hinder him throughout the rest of this battle.

"I should've expected this." The guy said calmly, holding his arm in pain as he looked down and saw Roxanne trying to get Gray and Axel out of the room. "I can stop her at the minimum." The guy acknowledges, this time firing a blue orb of light at Roxanne. It flew so fast that Erza wouldn't be able to stop it in time, and she could only scream for Roxanne to get out of the way.

"Roxanne!" She shouted, Roxanne turning around and seeing the orb heading straight for her. She was frozen solid with shock, and wouldn't be able to move out of the way in time. Just before she was hit, a large shield of ice surrounded Roxanne as the blue energy hit the shield and exploded into nothing. Roxanne had closed her eyes in fear, but once she felt a cool breeze surrounding her, she opened her eyes to see herself surrounded by the shield. Looking to her side, she saw the hand of Gray Fullbuster sticking out. Realizing that he was the one who cast the shield, she tried setting him down, and he managed to get up and walk out in front of her on his own.

"Next time you try to save me, you should at least know how to protect yourself." Gray explained calmly to Roxanne. Roxanne was watching Gray in astonishment, realizing that he was here to help them out. Gray's back in action!


	16. Chapter 16: Back in Action

Chapter 16: Back in Action

Roxanne stood there in complete surprise, watching as Gray decided to take action after he was conscious. The ice shield dissipated within the air and Gray looked up at the guy flying in the air, seeing how Erza was fighting him too.

"No way, it can't be. Erza's here too?!" Gray says surprised, looking up as Erza looked back down and noticed Gray.

"Gray, you're awake!" Erza says relieved. Now it was Gray, Erza and Roxanne against the guy who was flying up in the air. Axel, however, was still unconscious. Roxanne would have to deal with making sure Axel wasn't killed if they were to fight the guy flying up in the air right on the spot. Surprisingly, the guy flying up in the air was starting to back off. He knew that the odds were stacking up against him, and if he were to try to fight them at the moment, he wouldn't have the best chance of winning. Gray and Erza were ready to take him down, however, so the guy decided to leave instantly.

"Fighting you three at the moment would be a mistake on my part. It would be best if we settled this later." The guy explains, Gray getting annoyed.

"We ain't settling this later you know. You might as well give up while you can." Gray says, holding one hand on his palm as he prepares to use his Ice-Make magic against the guy. Erza prepares to fight too, but the guy starts moving out of the place at a high speed.

"We're settling this later and that is that." The guy says calmly, moving away as Erza tries stopping him with her flight armor. He shoots a green beam at Erza that slows her down temporarily, causing her to lose the guy as he gets away. Erza looks on in disappointment as she starts to fall to the ground slowly, eventually returning to normal speed as she lands on the ground with the green energy dissipating. Gray and Roxanne run after her as Roxanne carries the still unconscious Axel with her.

"Are you alright Erza?!" Gray asks concerned, catching up with Erza as she requips back into her traditional armor.

"I'm fine. I more concerned about you Gray." Erza says calmly, Gray standing there with a calm look on his face. "How did you get here anyway Gray?"

"To be honest, I just found myself stuck in this crazy place a few days ago. Don't know how I got here, but since then I've been wondering about everyone else in the guild." Gray explains calmly, Erza shaking her head. It was just the same with her and the rest of the group. They all got here, but they don't know how. It was too perplexing for them to figure out.

"Well it turns out that we've all been transported to an entirely different world."

"You've gotta be kidding me!" Gray says astonished, Roxanne shaking her head in response.

"That's how it was. I honestly didn't know wizards as powerful as you guys even existed." Roxanne says calmly. Gray gave her a perplexed look before turning back to Erza as Erza started explaining the situation.

"Apparently, we have people in this world that are somehow connected to us in various ways. Each wizard here has a connection with a specific wizard back in Earthland, and Roxanne here is the wizard I'm connected to." Erza explains as Roxanne just waves at Gray.

"So that's it huh." Gray says calmly. "That's probably why this Axel and I got along so well. Apparently, he also uses Ice magic. It's not any kind of maker magic though." Gray explains calmly, surprising Erza since she hadn't yet heard of ice magic that wasn't maker magic.

"I wonder how that works out." Erza says perplexed. Roxanne remembered how it worked, but she didn't feel like explaining it since they had more important matters to deal with.

"Anyway, who's all here with you Erza?" Gray asks calmly.

"Natsu and Gajeel were the first ones I met up with, and Lucy and Levy came next. However, they were captured by the members of the D-Raided earlier. Pantherlily and Happy also came here as well."

"What! Lucy and Levy were captured by these freaks?!"

"Unfortunately, yes. That's why we're all here in the first place; so we can rescue them." Erza explains. Gray, being upset about that, turned around and decided that they should get out of there and start looking right away.

"If that's the case, we better start looking for them." Gray says calmly, Erza agreeing. A smile came across Gray's face as he became excited about something in particular.

"Can't wait to see who's connected to Natsu." Gray says with a smile on his face, Roxanne looking at him confused.

"Yeah, don't get your hopes up. They're practically twins in different eras." Roxanne says to herself calmly. With that, they decided to head out of the garden and head for Lucy and Levy, which was closer to them than they were thinking. Roxanne started to gain a saddened expression on her face, and it was mainly about Axel. He meant a lot to her, and thinking about what may have happened to him; it really brought her down. Erza noticed the pain and put a hand on her shoulder, catching her by surprise as she looks up to a smiling Erza.

"I wouldn't worry about him. I bet he's just fine." Erza says confidently. With that, Roxanne started smiling a bit.

"It's good to know that there are people like you out there." Roxanne says with a smile on her face. With that, they left the garden and kept running through the base to find Lucy and Levy for themselves.

* * *

As they did that, Natsu and Dayton were gaining the upper-hand on Aerolin, who was being constantly punched multiple times by Natsu and Dayton. Dayton had gotten Happy and made sure that he was alright, as he was in slight pain.

"Aww man, that hurts." Happy says while rubbing his head. He looked up to see that it was Dayton that was holding him and not Natsu.

"Are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'll be fine. Is Natsu alright?" Happy asks calmly. Dayton turned and looked up at Natsu, who was fighting Aerolin with his flames. He kept landing successful hits on Aerolin, but he couldn't quite take him down.

"I'm gonna make you pay for hitting Happy like that!"

"Go ahead flame boy, you won't do anything with this air surrounding me." Aerolin says cockily, controlling the air around him and making a vortex as it smothered Natsu's flames with ease. Dayton then just came up with an idea.

"Hey Happy."

"Yeah, what is it?"

"Look, I need you to fly me up right above that guy Natsu's fighting. Can you do that?" Dayton asks calmly. Happy looked at him confused.

"Why would you want me to do that?"

"Just trust me, I have an idea." Dayton says confidently, Happy looking at him surprised. He felt that same care and compassion that Natsu had inside of Dayton, and this made him more willing to help Dayton than ever. He gained a confident look in his eyes.

"Aye sir!" Happy shouts happily, flying up and picking up Dayton as he starts to fly him up above Aerolin. This was going to be a tough challenge. Dayton was planning on using his Lava Dragon's Roar right on top of Aerolin while he was too busy fighting Natsu. He had to make sure that he hit Aerolin specifically, because if he were to hit Natsu, it would potentially cost them the battle. Happy had to keep above Aerolin so he doesn't cause Dayton to accidentally hit Natsu.

"Just a little bit more." Dayton says calmly, his hands burning up. They were becoming bright orange because of the lava again. Once Happy flew right on top of Aerolin, Dayton instantly shouted to stop. He then prepared firing his Lava Dragon's Roar at Aerolin, firing it soon and managing to hit Aerolin's arm as it burned him painfully.

"AAAGH! What the hell!" Aerolin screams, watching as Natsu also got burned a bit by the lava.

"Aw man, this is hot!" Natsu says who had his feet accidentally burned by the lava. Happy was confused as a result.

"Natsu! How is he being burned?"

"My lava is a Dragon Slayer magic, that's probably why." Dayton explains calmly. Since it was a Dragon Slayer Magic, it had a much more intense effect. "Drop me!" Dayton shouts, Happy questioning him.

"Are you sure?" Happy asks perplexed when Dayton pushes Happy's hands off of him. Dayton fell to the ground as Happy watched in shock and he got down to business with Aerolin, who was looking at him furiously.

"You little brat! I'm gonna snap your neck!" Aerolin yells angrily before being punched in the face by Dayton.

"Yeah? Go ahead and try! You ain't landing a single hit on me!" Dayton says confidently. He kneed Aerolin in the stomach as he pushed Aerolin up in the air. Aerolin tried to blast air at Dayton, but Dayton simply did a roundhouse kick and hit him in the stomach again. This caused Aerolin to start spinning in the air once more.

"Ah, dammit!" Aerolin says angrily. He landed on the wall real quick and jumped off after Dayton, using his air as a boost of power when Dayton grabbed his arm using his Lava Dragon Slayer scales. Being angry, Dayton pulled Aerolin by his arm and threw him at Natsu, who was getting the Lava off of him.

"Natsu, it's your turn!" Dayton shouts confidently, watching as Natsu was getting ready for Aerolin. As Aerolin flew at Natsu, Natsu threw a barrage of flame-enhanced punches at Aerolin. They were too fast for Aerolin to comprehend, as the air around him that he tried using only enhanced Natsu's flames this time.

"_What the hell?! Why aren't my vortexes of air working! This guy shouldn't have any flames!" _Aerolin thinks to himself shocked. As Natsu was about to deliver the final punch, Aerolin did a back-handspring and managed to kick him in the face, flying back and firing a large blast of air at Natsu. It was powerful enough to blast Natsu back, but Natsu used his Fire Dragon's Roar and the air enhanced his flames as a result, leaving Aerolin completely horrified. "BUT NO! THIS IS BULL!" Aerolin screams, unable to comprehend the large blast of flames that was fired at him. They burned him to a crisp, causing his screams of pain to eventually disperse into nothing as he was sent into a state of unconsciousness as a result. Eventually, the flames dispersed as well, leaving a burned up Aerolin lying unconscious on the ground and an angry Natsu standing there pride-fully.

"You think you can just come and take Lucy and Levy! Well think again you bastards!" Natsu screams at the unconscious Aerolin. Dayton and Happy watched in enjoyment, being happy themselves that they won the battle. Happy ran up to Natsu excitedly, who in return comforted Happy and was happy that he was alright. Dayton came up to the two as well, wondering what they should do next since they defeated Aerolin. He had a much more comfortable expression on his face this time.

"Alright, so we defeated him. Where should we head next?" Dayton asks Natsu. He puts down Happy and gets up, looking all around for the next place to go to. Relying on Natsu to figure out a solution was probably a bad idea, since he would never be smart enough to do it. He was smart in fighting, but when it comes to technical stuff he's definitely not the one to ask.

"I don't know. We just gotta find Lucy and Levy." Natsu says while shrugging his shoulders. Dayton looked at the ground in disappointment, thinking that they were now lost in the mysterious building. They were locked in the room since the doors in the area they were in were locked shut. Dayton looked around the room, looking up at the wall to find a vent up that led out of the room.

"Hey Natsu! There's a vent up there." Dayton points out, as the two look up and notice the vent. It was pretty small through, causing Dayton to have second thoughts. "Do you think we'll be able to fit in there?"

"Sure we will!" Natsu says confidently, packing his fists together as he walks up and sees the vent. He had Happy fly him up to the vent, looking at how it's bolted onto the wall. Natsu simply punches through the vent and blasts it apart, revealing a large tunnel inside of the vent that they'll have to crawl through.

"Alright Natsu!" Happy says cheerfully, trying to squeeze Natsu into the vent. He may have been a bit shorter compared to people like Erza and Gajeel, but he still wouldn't fit inside of the vent. Happy kept pushing Natsu into the vent as Dayton watched, trying not to laugh. "Come on Natsu!" Happy says frustrated, pushing Natsu's legs into the vent as the opening was smaller than the tunnel itself. Eventually, Natsu just kicked Happy accidently and got inside the vent. Happy fell to the floor in a dizzy state.

"Sorry buddy!" Natsu says, going ahead and crawling ahead in the tunnel. Happy then picked Dayton up, being a little bit dizzy, and tried putting him through the vent as well. It also proved to be difficult. Just think how difficult it would've been for Gajeel and Erza or Roxanne and Kyousuke if they had to try to squeeze into the vent. It would've been a disaster, much like this one.

"Aww come on! I know I'm not fat!" Dayton says angrily, trying to push himself through the vent as Happy was having trouble pushing him in. Eventually, Dayton was forced into the vent, seeing Natsu's behind as a result. "OOOWWW!" Dayton says annoyed, Happy flying into the vent behind them.

"Sorry." Happy says apologetically. Now since everyone was in the vent, all they had to deal with was getting out. Crawling through the vent was going to be a real problem for them. They crawled through the vents, hearing footsteps of numerous people going through the building. Sometimes they could hear what they were saying. They crawled through the vents and heard footsteps running through the hall below, in which Dayton saw through a part of one of the vents. In it, he looked down and heard running footsteps approaching them. Natsu kept making a lot of noise in the tunnel, which was going to give them away if the person was a D-Raided member.

"Dude shut up! Someone's coming!" Dayton says cautiously, causing Natsu to stop, being more confused than cautious. They all became mysteriously quiet as they listened out for what the thing that was running actually was. Dayton kept an eye out of the vent just so he could figure it out. Had it been a D-Raided member, they would have to keep it real quiet. The footsteps got louder and each time they did Dayton's heartbeat sped up. Not that he was scared to fight them, but in their position they could easily be killed if the tunnel they were inside were to explode or something of the sort. Suddenly, something came in sight and Dayton jumped a little, only to realize it was none other than Pantherlily, who Dayton felt relief at the sight of. He called out to him in a rush.

"HEY!" Dayton shouts out, causing Pantherlily to stop in his tracks. He looked around in confusion.

"What the? Did I just hear someone?"

"I'm up in this vent!" Dayton shouts, Pantherlily looking around and seeing Dayton stuck in the vent.

"There you are," Pantherlily says in relief, only to become confused even more, "What the heck are you doing in there?"

"The room me and Natsu were in had the doors locked shut and we had no choice but to get into this stupid tunnel." Dayton says in annoyance. "Can you get us out?"

"How do you expect me to do that?"

"Can you blow up this vent right here?" Dayton pleads. Pantherlily first thought of flying up there and pulling it off, and so he tried. He flew up to the vent and tried pulling it off, which didn't work. He then tried punching through it, and he did, but the hole was just as small as the last hole. Dayton didn't realize that, so when he tried getting out, his legs got stuck and they just hung down from the outside of the vent. Annoyed, he just kicked his legs around as Pantherlily watched in embarrassment.

"Ugh, my legs are stuck now! Why are these stupid vents so freaking tiny!" Dayton shouts angrily, trying to pull himself up from the inside of the vent. Natsu just kept crawling ahead, leaving behind Dayton as Dayton tried calling for him.

"Natsu! Where are you going?!"

"I'm gonna get us out of here, you just wait!" Natsu says determined. However, Dayton just kept complaining.

"My legs are stuck in this stupid vent and you're just gonna leave me! Natsu, please don't go!" Dayton pleads.

"Don't worry, I'm gonna get us out of here!" Natsu says cheerfully. Dayton didn't feel any more convinced, and seeing Dayton's legs hanging out like they did brought wonders to him, not to mention it made Pantherlily stare at him while feeling slightly awkward. Dayton wondered about all the things his friends would say about him if they saw him like that.

"_Oh my gosh Dayton, that is hilarious! You are such an idiot!" _He imagines Roxanne saying while laughing herself off.

"_Hmph. This is why I beat you, you're just stupid." _He imagines Kyousuke saying while smirking.

"Well screw Kyousuke." Dayton says to himself, thinking about what everyone else might think.

"_You fool, and you expect me to believe you're a wizard capable of our level?" _He imagines Erza saying while she was mad, which would shock him.

"_You said you were thinking about kissing me? Well you're not getting off so easily." _He imagines a grinning Gajeel say. He imagines him popping his knuckles as he prepares to beat him up for thinking about something like that. It left him completely horrified, being completely unaware of Pantherlily calling him from down below.

"HEY! Can you hear me! YO!" Pantherlily yells as he begins pulling on Dayton's legs in annoyance. Dayton suddenly snapped out of his thoughts and thought it was Gajeel pulling on his legs, preparing to beat him up like he imagined.

"AAGH, PLEASE DON'T KILL ME!" Dayton screams, accidentally kicking Pantherlily in the face when doing so. He suddenly realized what he had just done when he heard Pantherlily scoff under his breath at Dayton's annoyance.

"Oh shit, sorry man!" Dayton says apologetically. He tried getting himself out of the vent while Pantherlily rubbed his face. He was unaware of something peculiar that was happening with his form. Slightly annoyed, Pantherlily decided to just get it over with and help him out. He wasn't like Erza who might've chopped his legs off in incredible anger (not literally). He just grabbed Dayton's legs and forced them up into the vent, causing Dayton to fly up into the vent at extreme force. His legs got pushed out of the vent at least, but know they felt like they were slightly jammed into his hips and he also hit his head, which was painful.

"OOWW!" Dayton says angrily, "Wasn't there another way to help me out?!"

"No." Pantherlily bluntly states, causing Dayton to become annoyed. He was happy that he wasn't stuck in the vent anymore.

"Hey thanks man!" Dayton says cheerfully, trying to climb through the vent to get to Natsu once again. Pantherlily just continued on down through the hall, continuing on finding Lucy and Levy. He wondered about how Gajeel was doing, and also about where Kyousuke might've gone.

"_Gajeel's been suspicious about Kyousuke. I can tell by how he's been sticking by him constantly. Does he think that Kyousuke's up to something?" _Pantherlily thinks to himself perplexed. It was true that Gajeel was suspicious of Kyousuke, but it wasn't just suspicion. As Pantherlily continued through the pathway, he stopped when a sudden sound halted his movement. "What was that?" Pantherlily asks himself, looking around to see if anything is there. He couldn't find anything, that is, until something came from behind him and tried slashing through him. He guarded himself against a sword as he saw the face of the person trying to attack him, which shocked him greatly. The person had a cat-like face with a humanoid appearance, and it was similar to Pantherlily's. Pantherlily jumped back and got into a fighting stance, the other guy letting his sword fall to the ground as he held onto its handle. The guy was muscular and had an appearance like that of Pantherlily's. However, he had fur sticking out the sides of his face and had a more tiger like appearance, having golden-orange fur with brown streaks going through it. The guy was quite intrigued in Pantherlily as well.

"Your appearance is very intriguing. Have anything to say for that?" The guy asks in a calm manner. He had a voice that was bold and calm, much like Pantherlily's but much more bright and clear. Pantherlily was a bit stunned to respond right away, but he calmed down and responded calmly.

"Would I be right to assume that you're an exceed?"

"Right you are. This is quite an interesting thing for me. I've never seen another exceed who can enter this mode in my entire life." The exceed says calmly. A smile was seen on his face as he picked up his sword and prepared to battle Pantherlily right then and there. "However, being a member of the D-Raided, letting you go would be a disgrace to our organization. I cannot let you leave!" The exceed says. He got serious, narrowing his eyes a bit and holding out his sword to his right. Pantherlily didn't take light of the situation, pulling out his buster sword as he was preparing for a fight.

"I see. In that case, I can't let you stop me." Pantherlily says calmly, his sword extending to great length as the other exceed just watched. He wasn't intimidated by the larger size of Pantherlily's sword, and there was a reason for that. Right when they locked eyes, they both came at each other and clashed swords, giving each other menacing looks as neither one was about to let the other beat them. Everyone's been running into battles. Will any of them find Lucy and Levy in time?


	17. Chapter 17: The Failed Experiment

Chapter 17: The Failed Experiment

A room, dark and empty, holds nothing but darkness and failed experiments inside. It was a place that the D-Raided always went to for their important matters, and it was where the Dragon Slayers were murdered. It was a place that held many memories of Dragon Slayers being killed in the research room, mainly second generation ones. A first generation Dragon Slayer was a rarity, and finding those wasn't easy. Aside from a completely white research room was another area in which experiment subjects were hanged up for usage later. It was a filthy room with broken down tubes that were the size of humans and chains that were connected to the wall. On the wall were two people that were hanged by the D-Raided for experiments. They had their hands hanged on the wall and they were initially knocked unconscious so escape attempts would be lower for them. It was none other than Lucy and Levy. Lucy started moving her head around in discomfort, slowly opening her eyes to realize that she is now in an entirely different place. Coming to reality, she looked around and saw that she was in a research lab, noticing the research room across from her.

"Oh man…what happened?" She says to herself in discomfort. She tried moving her hands but couldn't as she looked up and realized she was hung up by chains so she couldn't escape so easily. "That's just great." Lucy says in disappointment. She looked down by her side to see that her keys are gone as well, figuring that they would be anyway. Disappointed about that as well, she turned to her left and saw Levy being hung there unconscious as well. She was sort of shocked to see that Levy was there with her, and while it did make her feel bad, it also gave her relief. She knew that she was alright, and they could work together and get out of this mess all-together. She tried nudging Levy to get her to wake up. "Levy, wake up. I need your help." Lucy says calmly, but to no avail. She kept nudging on her side, not being able to wake her up right away. "_I'll just have to keep nudging her." _Lucy thinks to herself determined. She used the chains to swing herself back and forth and gain momentum, throwing herself at Levy so she could kick her and wake her up. Eventually, she managed to do it, pushing Levy as she swung up and hit the wall (not painfully though). That was enough to get her back on track, as she started to shake her head. She opened her eyes and saw that she was in the room. Being a bit frightened, she looked around and saw that Lucy was with her, which brought her great relief.

"Oh man Lu, where are we?" Levy asks while shaking her head, still waking up as Lucy was happy that she woke up.

"I was going to ask you that. What kind of place is this; a research lab?" Lucy asks confused. Levy tried getting a look around the room herself, noticing how there was a lab room ahead of them. She started to get a bad feeling.

"Sure looks like it to me. It doesn't sound too good." Levy says disappointed. Levy realized that she was being hung by the chains as well, which brought her disappointment. She didn't worry about it too much though, being more worried about what the D-Raided might do to them in the lab ahead. "I've got a really bad feeling about this Lu. We need to get out of here." Levy explains with rising fear. Lucy agreed, trying to think of ways that they could get out of the place. She looked around once more, but couldn't find anything that they could use to get them out of the place, especially since their hands were locked onto the chains.

"Well, if we're going to have any chance of getting out of here, we're going to have to break these chains." Lucy explains, twisting her hands and arms around so the chains could possibly snap. As useless as this would be, she tried breaking the chains while stuck in them. Levy watched her in awe, looking up at the chains and coming up with a better idea.

"I wonder…" She says. She tries pushing herself up the wall with her legs while Lucy stops struggling, wondering what she is doing.

"What are you doing?"

"This idea might just work." Levy says, pushing herself up the wall and getting one of her legs on Lucy's left hand. She was trying to either push off the chain or break it with her leg, and Lucy got the idea. As Levy moved her foot against the chain, Lucy pulled in the opposite direction so that maybe they could force it off. However, a loud sound was heard by the two of them and they instantly went back to normal, having their legs hanging down while just being hung by the chains.

"Who is that?"

"I don't know." They share with each other. Staying quiet, they hear someone come in the room, wearing a lab-coat with the D-Raided emblems on it as usual and wearing the traditional black gloves that all scientists supposedly wear. He had an older appearance with short, grey hair and circular glasses.

"Lucy Heartfilia and Levy McGarden, right?" The guy says, revealing to be the same guy Erza and Roxanne encountered earlier.

"What do you want with us?" Lucy says resentfully, causing the guy to just look at them with a blank stare.

"Nothing you should be concerned of. I tend to liken the situation when my subjects don't know what's happening."

"Subjects?!" Lucy says shocked. Both Lucy and Levy assumed that they would be taken into the lab to be tested on, both of which freaked them out.

"I want your magic. It's rare and unique in this world. With it, I can get whatever I want. First, we'll start with the Solid-Script magic." The guy says in his monotone voice. Suddenly, the wall Levy was hanged on flipped over and transformed into a lab-bed of sorts. She was still being chained onto the wall by the chains, but now she was lying down like a test subject. Lucy watched in shock as Levy was being moved to the lab room.

"Levy no!" Lucy screams, trying to reach out for her but failing, as the guy moved her to the lab quickly.

"Your next Celestial Spirit girl." The lab-guy says, pulling Levy into the room as Levy tried breaking free. She couldn't though, and that just made things worse. Being in the lab-room, the guy went up to his desk and went to pull out all the necessary tools for his experiment. Levy kept trying to get free, but she still couldn't.

"What do you want with me?!" Levy shouts out in frustration, the guy continuing to get the items necessary for the experiment.

"Solid-Script magic will allow me to develop a formula that will let me control whoever pleases me. You are the only subject with that magic type." The guy explains. Levy just thought about how horrible that would be; for her magic to cause everyone to betray her. She kept trying to break free, but to no avail.

"That's terrible!"

"I know, isn't that how it always is?" The guy asks in a monotone voice. He got a syringe that was purple with a red needle on it, and he walked up and injected it into Levy. With it, he pulled out a blood sample of hers, filling up the large tube as she sat there in increasing pain. "A blood sample like this won't do anything to you. Your blood will return with time." The guy explains. A small red bump was formed were the syringe was injected, causing Levy pain. The guy simply took the blood sample back to his desk, laying it down carefully before he went for his next tool. It was a custom made tool made using a drill and a large syringe, and it was made to extract DNA. The thing was, though, this would erase her from existence. "It's too bad that you'll have to go." The guy explains, pulling out the thing as Levy looked at it terrified.

"Have to go?!"

"This will erase your DNA and you'll be gone. All that'll be left is your magic energy, and that's all I need. It's always worked with the Dragon Slayers."

"You bastard!" Levy yells angrily, trying to break free. Every step the guy took towards her caused her heartbeat to shoot up. It was scaring her every second and she hated it so much. He was coming closer, and she tried breaking free more frantically. It eventually came to the point where the guy was standing right on top of her, and it was almost over.

"Goodbye Ms. Solid Script." The guy says calmly, about to use the device on her. She closed her eyes in fear, wondering if this was the end, that is, until the side of the room was blown open. Being overwhelmed with fear and shock, Levy watched, paralyzed, as the lab-guy was blown back into the wall and a large amount of debris came flying through the room. Hearing all the debris crack and hit the ground, Levy turned her head to see that it was Pantherlily who got blasted into the room while fighting the other exceed that he encountered earlier. Pantherlily turned around, looking at the room he was in and noticing Levy being chained to the lab-bed.

"Pantherlily, you've got to help me!" Levy shouts, just as shock fills Pantherlily. He is then punched in the face by the other exceed who he was fighting with.

"Pay attention, if you want to at least try winning!" The other exceed says in a serious tone. Angered, Pantherlily used his buster sword to hit the guy and blast him back against the wall, watching as the other exceed made a crater in the wall painfully. As the other exceed was dealing with that, Pantherlily rushed over to Levy and snapped apart the chains that were bound on her, picking her up and attempting to run out.

"Wait, Lucy's in there!"

"What?!" Pantherlily says shocked, turning around and seeing Lucy scream for them while being chained up herself. In that moment, a hole was blasted open by Lucy in which came out Erza and Roxanne, along with Gray and the still unconscious Axel.

"Lucy!" Erza says relieved, along with Gray who was relieved to see Lucy there.

"You guys!" Lucy says relieved, being happy that they were alright and that Gray is alright too. Roxanne, on the other-hand, immediately ran into the lab, throwing Axel down on the lab-bed Levy was on and rushing over to the syringes that the lab-guy had. The lab-guy saw her and tried to stop her.

"No you don't you little brat!" The guy says, grabbing her leg and trying to trip her. He tried reaching up and grabbing one of the syringes so he could knock her unconscious. However, she kneed him in the face and kicked him straight in the face again, pushing him through the wall painfully as she went back to the syringes.

"Dammit! I know there's a syringe that restores consciousness to the subject!" Roxanne says while searching through the syringes. At one point she found a teal-aqua colored liquid inside a specific syringe. Looking at it carefully, she examined it quickly and deduced that it was the correct syringe, running back to the unconscious Axel and preparing to stab the syringe into him. "This has to work!" Roxanne says in a rush, taking the syringe and stabbing Axel with it. She stabbed him right in the chest, and as painful as that may be, it was the only way for this type of solution to work. As she did it, Axel let out an unconscious scream of pain, only to be left still unconscious as Roxanne grabbed him and ran out of the lab-room. As she was running, she tripped when Pantherlily was slammed back into the lab-room by the other exceed; Levy watching from the sidelines.

"Is that all you've got! I was expecting more from the captain of the first division in Edolas!" The other exceed says, shocking Pantherlily as he got up and punched the exceed in the face.

"How do you know that?!"

"The D-Raided has the most information regarding other universes. Do you think we would be unprepared for an incident like this if it were to happen?"

"Very clever. However, it is not enough to stop me!" Pantherlily shouts angrily, taking his Buster sword that was jammed into the wall and slicing the other exceed across the chest. It created a slash across his chest as blood started to pour from the slash.

"Ah shit, damn you!" The other exceed shouts angrily as they continue battling. On the other-hand, Erza and Gray got Lucy free, preparing to leave when Lucy remembered something important.

"Wait!"

"What is it?!" Both Gray and Erza shout at the same time.

"My keys!" Lucy says frantically, running around the room and looking for them afterwards.

"What!" Gray says shocked. "What happened to your keys?!"

"They must've taken them from her when she was captured!" Erza deduced, helping Lucy look for them. Roxanne came with Axel and turned around, seeing the lab guy walking out with the keys on his side.

"There! He has the keys!" Roxanne says shocked, causing everyone in the room to turn their attention to the lab-guy.

"You wizards again, I should've expected…"

"Ice-Make Lance!" Gray shouts angrily, firing an ice lance at the guy, pinning him to the wall as they all rushed over to him in an instant.

"Damn you brats!" The guy says in a mumbled, annoyed tone. Lucy ran over and grabbed the keys, running back with them.

"Alright, I've got them!" Lucy says relieved, holding the keys carefully. Erza took charge, making sure they didn't leave anything or anyone else behind.

"Levy's with Pantherlily, we should be fine. Let's head out!" Erza commands, everyone listening to her. With that, they all ran out through the hole that they came in through, leaving only Pantherlily and Levy to deal with the exceed. The other exceed came at Pantherlily with his own sword, slicing the buster sword completely in half while being in a battle rage.

"Ha HA! That definitely worked as I hoped!" The other exceed says with a grin, causing Pantherlily much shock.

"What! He broke my sword!" Pantherlily says shocked, looking up as the guy was coming at him quickly. He was about to be beaten by the other exceed as Levy watched in horror, noticing his blade gaining a blood-red aura. He could only think about everything that he did before this very moment.

"_Come on! I told you to get into it!" _He remembers. That's right, it was Gajeel who told him that when they were training. Suddenly, Pantherlily calmed down fast enough to be able to grab the other exceed's wrist. As he did, the grin on the other exceed vanished, becoming a face full of bewilderment.

"What! I missed?!"

"I just stopped you." Pantherlily says calmly, using his new-found determination to brutally punch the other exceed right in the stomach. It was such a power-packed punch that it caused the other exceed to fly into the same hole he was blasted into previously with much more force. However, this time, the exceed pushed through the hole in the wall with enough force to break it open, falling into it and falling out of the room.

"PANTHERLILY!" The other exceed screams, going into a panic attack while falling out of the hole. "I…..lost." The other exceed says, fading into nothing as he cannot be seen nor heard anymore. All that was left was the sword he dropped and the destruction that was made during the fight. Pantherlily, breathing heavily, walked up and grabbed the sword the other exceed dropped, examining its properties for himself. The red aura on the sword was no longer there.

"Hmph. It may not be big enough to my liking, but it'll do." He says calmly, putting the sword on his back and taking it for himself. Turning to Levy, he thinks that the best idea is to get out of here right away.

"We shouldn't stay here. They could track us down and stop us again. Let's find Gajeel and everyone else." Pantherlily suggests, Levy agreeing. With that, they left that part of the building and went looking for everyone else.

* * *

Back to Erza's group, they were running through the place, trying to find an exit and find everyone else in the process.

"This place is huge!" Gray says astonished. They had been in this building for hours and they kept finding places that were so different from the rooms before. Right now they were running through metal stairways into various parts of the scientific section of the base.

"This place is much bigger than I ever expected. Then again, they are labeled as one of the most powerful organizations in existence." Roxanne explains, causing much shock for Gray.

"What! You can't be serious!"

"It's always been that way. What's more shocking is what they've done to Dragon..." She explains before tripping. She didn't simply trip herself; the ground broke apart and she fell into it. Erza, Gray, and Lucy watched in shock as Roxanne helplessly fell into the hole, dropping Axel on the ground next to the hole.

"Roxanne!" Erza yells, only hearing her scream as she falls into the hole. Roxanne fell and hit the ground, sliding down a ledge continuously. It was too dark for her to see, so she was just sliding down the hole, not knowing where she was going.

"What the hell? Where am I?!" She shouts in confusion, before hitting a wall accidentally and sliding down another ledge. "AGH! That hurts!" she shouts angrily. She still couldn't see anything, and it just made things even more difficult for her. She went through about 4 to 5 ledges before she started falling straight down, falling down to a rock hard ground and hitting it painfully. She landed on her side, hitting her elbow which was her funny bone. "AAGH, my elbow!" She shouts in pain, holding on to it as it felt extremely painful. She sat there letting out groans of pain as she tried dealing with it. Hitting that bone by accident was painful; just imagine what it's like when falling on it. Eventually, it started to fade away, and she got up and looked around. It was just a large room full of rocks like a mountain or something related to that. It was like an underground cave. "What kind of place is this?" Roxanne asks herself confused, never ever expecting a place even lower than the base itself, which was already underground. While looking around the place, she brushed off her jacket, getting all the dirt and gravel off of it and keeping it clean. While looking around, she heard footsteps coming closer to her, causing her to jump a bit. "_Who is that?!_" She thinks to herself nervously. She requips a flashlight and a small dagger, defending herself as she shined the light all around her nervously. At one point, she spotted something coming closer to her, and it looked big and dark. Scared, she threw the dagger at the thing, only to hear it being grabbed by something hard. "What the heck?!" She says shocked, becoming even more nervous as the thing got closer to her. She moved her flashlight up and the thing stopped. She stood there nervously, looking at the thing and realizing that it was actually Gajeel, who caught the dagger in his mouth. "Uhh…Gajeel? It's you." She says confused, watching as Gajeel ate the dagger right before her eyes. She started to calm down knowing it was him and not some giant black creepy thing.

"Huh?" Gajeel says, looking up and seeing Roxanne there in-front of him. He looked at her more confused than happy.

"What the hell are you doing down here?" He asks with a serious tone, giving her a perplexed look.

"I wanted to ask you that." Roxanne says, holding the flashlight as Gajeel came closer to her. He crossed his arms as he stood right in-front of her, she looking at him with relief and wonder.

"This place ain't what I call a base. It's got all these doors and crap, and there's this land of rocks." Gajeel explains, Roxanne looking at him confused. He was right though. Roxanne scratched her neck before answering.

"Well, I just fell down a trap door. Mind helping me out here?" Roxanne asks calmly, feeling guilty like Dayton would. "_I wonder how Kyousuke gets along with this guy." _Roxanne thinks to herself, noticing Gajeel's extremely serious and tough exterior. Gajeel just gave her a look and continued walking.

"Follow me." He said, walking through the place as he continued down the rocks. Looks like they'll have to explore this land of rocks.


	18. Chapter 18: Gajeel Cares

Chapter 18: Gajeel Cares

Roxanne decided to follow Gajeel through the mysterious rock-land, since it was the most peculiar place in the entire base and she had no idea of what to do inside of it. At least being with Gajeel made her seem less embarrassed with herself. Roxanne used her flashlight and lit a pathway for them to walk through, and the two followed the trail that Roxanne made with her flashlight. Gajeel didn't talk much, leaving the two silent as they patrolled through the place. Roxanne did have a lot of questions on her mind though, and they were mainly about Kyousuke. She could never find anything out about Kyousuke just by simply asking Kyousuke himself. She saw him as a type that never really saw her, or cared to at least. She thought he saw right through her like she was a thin sheet of plastic, and that's one of the reasons why she thought getting to Gajeel was a good thing. Perhaps she could find out more about Kyousuke through him since Kyousuke wouldn't tell her himself. She went to ask him, but then paused as Gajeel gave her a strange look. She couldn't bring herself to do it. Was she being really shy about it? It made her cringe on the inside when going to ask about it, but she tried asking again, only to pause again and look away embarrassed. Gajeel got annoyed with her hesitation to ask him.

"Come on, spit it out!" Gajeel tells her annoyed, causing Roxanne to look up at him surprised. She knew he was catching on, and she thought that she might as well just ask him the damn question.

"It's about Kyousuke." She says while blushing slightly. She held her hands together as she tried spitting out the question. Gajeel gave her a weird look in response.

"What, is he like your boyfriend or something?"

"Oh no! Please don't get that idea! He would never want to date me!" Roxanne says slightly panicked. Gajeel just gave her the same confused look again.

"Well what is it? Spit it out already!" Gajeel says annoyed, Roxanne trying to say it. She couldn't bring herself to it; it was like a cork was in her throat. Eventually, she just said it all quickly.

"What's Kyousuke like?!" Roxanne spats out. She started pulling on her jacket as Gajeel kept looking at her strangely, losing the perplexed look as he started to understand the question.

"What's he like?"

"Yeah. Like…how does he act around you?"

"Why do you wanna know about that?" Gajeel asks confused, Roxanne looking at him slightly irritated. She started getting real tense.

"Just please answer the question!"

"Alright! Don't get your panties in a twist!" Gajeel says annoyed. He looked ahead and thought about the question, remembering about Kyousuke's secluded personality. He thought about it deeply, remembering how he always sat there, hating the D-Raided. It was especially prominent after Dayton brought it up, and he also remembered how he tried getting him to open up more, which didn't work so well. Kyousuke was real nice to Gajeel when they first met, but it was like that sort of faded away and that wasn't important anymore. He noticed how Kyousuke shut out other people from his own personal matters, much like Gajeel did himself. Gajeel never really opened up to anyone except his close friends. Bringing himself to do it was a challenge, but what was difficult for him was getting around when people knew about his dark side. He saw that clearly in Kyousuke, wondering if he may start to act the way Gajeel himself did at one point. It's a tough conclusion to make, but it was possible.

"He ain't your average Dragon Slayer," Gajeel explains, "He's got a lot more hatred than that Dayton kid does."

"Hatred?" Roxanne says shocked. She predicted something like that, but she didn't actually want that. It hit her in a strange way, making her more upset with herself than with him. "What does he hate so much?"

"I'm guessing this D-Raided group." Gajeel explains, which was obvious if you think about it. The main problem was though, no one knew why.

"And he doesn't want anyone involved."

"Why is that?"

"Who knows? All I know is that he got real pissed when I told him that I was coming whether he liked it or not." Gajeel simply states. Roxanne got a little depressed. She desperately wanted to know why that was. She then remembered what the lab-guy said about everyone here; how they're connected with someone specifically.

"One of the more intelligent guys in the D-Raided explained that we have connections with each other in this world and yours." Roxanne explains to Gajeel. Gajeel thought about it, wondering what she meant.

"What are you saying?"

"What I'm saying is that, in his words, you and Kyousuke are connected." Roxanne explains to Gajeel. Gajeel thought about it a bit until a grin formed on his face.

"That makes sense." Gajeel says with a grin on his face. Roxanne stopped in her tracks, wondering what Gajeel meant by that.

"Makes sense?"

"Yeah."

"What do you mean it _makes sense?_" Roxanne asked confused, looking at Gajeel. He stopped and turned, looking at her directly and answering the question.

"He's the only one here who ain't a moron." Gajeel explains, causing Roxanne to get slightly offended.

"Ugh, that's cheap. I'm the one who cracked the security here!" Roxanne says offended. Roxanne then took a deeper thought into what he meant, and they were pretty much very similar. They both liked music and had similar personalities, and they had a similar approach to everything. Kyousuke was a bit more technical but Gajeel wasn't anywhere near stupid like Natsu and Dayton. She honestly had never seen Kyousuke so cool with someone, and it really sunk inside of her. Her tone got more depressed as a result. "I've never seen him enjoy life as much when you weren't around." Roxanne explains. Gajeel stopped in his tracks, turning around and looking at her confused. He never thought that she would say something like that. Gajeel only became more shocked as Roxanne couldn't help but start tearing up right on the scene.

"It was only when you were around! He has never opened up to anyone as much as he has to you! I've always wanted to help him out and it was like he never cared!" Roxanne says painfully. Her throat tightened up and she started to tremble, slowly falling to the ground as Gajeel ran over and grabbed her before she hit the ground. He helped push her back up as she tried pushing the tears away, only for them to keep coming.

"I've spent so much time trying to find out what was wrong, but it's like there's a lock on his brain. He never sees the real me and it's always him hating on the D-Raided!" She cries. She cried uncontrollably, not understanding why Kyousuke held in the hatred for so long. Gajeel looked at her full of unexpected shock. He had never realized that she would've cared for him so much, but he was more shocked and surprised by how she was affected by Kyousuke's actions. What were those actions? Seeing that she once more fell to her knees, Gajeel sat down and put his hands on his knees, looking at her directly and noticing how much she was crying.

"Hey, quit crying!" Gajeel says straightforwardly. He gave her a stern look as she tried to stop herself from crying, seeing his face and wondering what he wanted.

"What the hell are you talking about?" Gajeel asks straightforwardly. It sounded more like an interrogation, mainly because he was asking the questions with a serious and demanding approach. Roxanne was both conflicted and surprised, looking at Gajeel and wondering what he meant.

"What?"

"Tell me everything he did."

"Everything?!"

"Yeah everything." Gajeel said seriously. Roxanne only became more surprised by his next response. "He's connected to me right? He's gotta have done something that I have." Gajeel says. Roxanne's heartbeat shot up upon hearing this.

"_Something that Gajeel has done?" _She thought to herself. Was it really possible that Kyousuke and Gajeel would've done the same thing? Both Natsu and Dayton's fathers disappeared without a trace, and so it would most likely be the same thing with Gajeel and Kyousuke. This is when she started seeing traces of hope; she was getting closer to the real answers. She rubbed her eyes and took a very deep breath, shaking as she began to tell him everything she knew about Kyousuke Watanabe.

"Alright, it all goes back to when it was just me and Dayton. We were really good friends with another guy named Axel, who was an ice-mage that was like that Gray Fullbuster." She first explained, Gajeel still staring at her with only slight surprise. "Well, one day, the D-Raided hunted us down, and we were forced to give up one of us for them. If we hadn't, they threatened to kill the three of us. Of course, Dayton wasn't going to give up, and I was torn between giving myself up and fighting with the rest of them, but then Axel stepped in." She explains, her throat hurting once more. She tried to not cry in the middle of the explanation, despite the intense pain she felt because of that event. "He froze our arms and legs so we couldn't stop him, and he gave himself up. Dayton was screaming in rage at him but suddenly he froze. I can't remember anything past that about Axel." Roxanne explains. She was breathing heavily, trying to keep the tears inside so that she could explain it all to Gajeel. "That's when Kyousuke came in. I was walking through the school once and caught a glimpse of him, seeing how he was so serious and calm. I also saw how some people stared at him as if he was the plague." Roxanne explains. Gajeel felt slight disgust on the inside on that last part.

"I'm guessing he didn't fit in?"

"I don't know. He segregated himself from everyone and they segregated themselves from him." Roxanne explains. Gajeel felt sudden relation, remembering his own past. No one in Fairy Tail trusted him and they would've rather thrown him out for him to fend for himself than to keep him as a guild member. He honestly hated them as much as they didn't trust him back then. It took him a long time, but he eventually gained their trust. It was that they didn't trust him at first because of something else. Roxanne went on to explain. "I tried getting to know him, but he would always give me strange looks and walk away. He was never like Dayton, except for wanting to get stronger and how straight to the point he was. He always preferred to do things alone and alone only. At one point he told me that I would never understand, and the reason why he stays away from me was because I cared about him too much." Roxanne explains. She then remembered the fight that happened between Dayton and Kyousuke in the school. "However, that first fight that everyone was so anticipated for. That wasn't really their first fight." Roxanne explains while clenching her fists in horror. Gajeel was further surprised as his heart raced slightly. If that wasn't their first fight, what was? He gave her a piercing look, being very curious.

"So what was their first fight?" He asked seriously. She stared into his eyes, being overwhelmed by their appearance. She could tell that there was definitely some sort of connection. The snake-like appearance with the pupils was one thing, but the blood red in his eyes is what drove her into shock. She already assumed that he had done something horrible before, seeing how important this was to him. She could see it in his eyes; the underlying pain. She swallowed before answering, forcing herself to reveal the information that has sucked happiness away from her for years.

"Their first fight was more about blood and our relationship between each other than just a simple victory." She explains. "Dayton and Kyousuke got into a fight because of Kyousuke being convicted of mass murders. Dayton thought that Kyousuke went off and killed innocent people for the sake of having fun, and he was afraid of him doing it to me. I never really believed that it was true, but Dayton was too stubborn to be convinced. He confronted Kyousuke about it at the Future Vision Site. It was a place in which people have claimed to get visions from another world, informing them of the future. Dayton and Kyousuke fought in such a way; it was like they were trying to kill each other!" She says, tears coming out once more. She couldn't hold it in any longer. "The site only made things worse, as I could hear loud screaming and shouting that now sounds somewhat familiar. It was like a war was happening." Roxanne explains. Gajeel remembered when Phantom Lord went to war with Fairy Tail, and he wondered if it had any connection. Remembering how he acted back then affected him greatly, being disgusted with it. Roxanne kept explaining. "Kyousuke at points manage to slash through his body using his chokuto, and he was like a psycho about it. He had a sadistic laugh on his face at points and he slashed through Dayton purposely. It was like he was going through madness." Roxanne explains. Gajeel wondered how that played out, but he was also like that sometimes. The thing was though; he knew how to not let it possess him. Roxanne went on. "Dayton also burned Kyousuke severely and also managed to cause Kyousuke to bleed out as well. It was a horrifying mess of blood!" She cried, Gajeel looking at her shocked. She kept crying for a minute before she could calm herself down and continues explaining, which was really hard for her at this point. "At the last moment…when they last clashed…I saw something else, and…" She says. She tries remembering it, remembering a silver-skinned person going against a person emerged in flames as a vision that surrounded Kyousuke and Dayton at the point. She suddenly gasps when she realizes what she saw. She put her hands on her head, panicking as Gajeel became shocked. "Oh my fucking…oh my…no. It can't be."

"What?! What the hell did you see?!" Gajeel shouted shocked, shaking Roxanne in slight panic.

"It was…_you_!" Roxanne burst out. At that exact moment, Gajeel stood there frozen with a shocked and angry look in his eyes, Roxanne breathing heavily. She stared at Gajeel with slightly widened eyes while he looked at her speechless. "It was you and Natsu, and you two were clashing. I heard you and Kyousuke saying something about killing them, something about the madness." Roxanne says in shock. The frozen Gajeel unfroze and pushed himself back a bit, shocked that it would be so connected. He was shocked that he was right about it. They both did do something of the same, and they both were really similar. Gajeel, shocked, was about to get up until something stopped him. Roxanne grabbed his wrists gently and got Gajeel to look at her surprised. Roxanne was crying to him, tightening her grip slightly as she couldn't take it anymore. "Please…Please don't kill Natsu or Dayton!" Roxanne cries. She held Gajeel's hands like they meant something incredibly important to her, like they were Kyousuke's hands. Gajeel gave her a look that showed how surprised he was. His mouth was slightly open and he was filled with surprise.

"_She's holding me like this? Is she that upset?" _Gajeel thought to himself shocked. Roxanne went on in tears.

"Dayton has been my best friend since we met in class, and Natsu is so similar to him. I want to be able to have you as a friend as I always wanted with Kyousuke, Gajeel!" Roxanne explained in tears. "I'm sick and tired of letting Kyousuke just pass over me! I want people to understand that I'm important, and I want Kyousuke to understand that the way he's been doing things is wrong! I need you to help me Gajeel! PLEASE!" She screams, pulling herself up and falling into Gajeel's arms. She put her head over his shoulder and hugged him tightly. The tears poured out with every bit of piercing sadness that escaped from the inside. The tears poured down Gajeel's back, who just stood there emotionally surprised. She let it all out to Gajeel; the only one who she knew could help Kyousuke and herself. As she was crying, she wanted Erza to be there, knowing that she would understand the pain of being neglected constantly and losing loved ones. Erza was more than just a friend to her though, knowing the connection that they had. Suddenly, Gajeel pulled Roxanne off his shoulders and gently held her out.

"Hey now, quit crying, will ya?" Gajeel says in a more compassionate tone. She looked at Gajeel while crying, letting the tears flow as she was open ears. Gajeel gained a grin on his face. Actually, it was more of a kind smile. "I ain't gonna go killing Salamander or something stupid like that, and he ain't killing that Dayton guy either." Gajeel explains with a more positive tone. "I know him better than anyone here, and he ain't gonna go doing stupid shit for no good reason." Gajeel says, surprising Roxanne greatly. Roxanne looked and saw the positivity Gajeel had, and it made her feel cared for. Knowing Gajeel cared for Kyousuke was something that both surprised her and made her happy. Gajeel let go of Roxanne and got up, preparing to continue looking for a way out of this cave. "Alright, let's find a way out of here."

"How can you care?" Roxanne says calmly. Gajeel turned at looked at her perplexed, and she repeated the question. "How can you care for Kyousuke so much? I thought someone like you would just ignore him." Roxanne explains calmly. Her throat was clearing up and the tears were starting to stop. Gajeel looked at her with a grin on his face.

"You said we're connected, didn't ya? I can't let him do what I did wrong, can I?" Gajeel explains optimistically, striking Roxanne with surprise and hope. "I'm just trying to help him, that's all." Gajeel says calmly. Gajeel got moving as Roxanne stood there, smiling to herself that Gajeel's willing to go as far as he can to get Kyousuke out of this mess. She then got moving and caught up to Gajeel, ready to continue on. Gajeel, however, didn't just want to save Kyousuke. He also wanted to find out the truth about him. He needed to know from him what really happened, and he was going to do that by force, since he knew Kyousuke wasn't the least bit tolerant. Enough with that, they continued on down through the rock land after getting over that emotional part. They looked for various parts in which they could escape through, but to no avail.

"Man, there is like, no way out of here. Why did they even build this place?" Roxanne asks confused, Gajeel ignoring the question. His eyes were caught on something else; something bright and colored. He continued down in that direction when Roxanne turned and noticed him leaving. Roxanne just followed him, that is, until noticing the bright light herself. It looked rather familiar to her. "That light…what is it?"

"That's what I'm trying to find out." Gajeel states. Eventually, they made it to the light and noticed something peculiar. It was a large collection of stones that were shining brightly. "What the?"

"It's just a pile of stones." Roxanne says to herself, thinking about it deeply for a minute. Suddenly, it came back to Gajeel, being one of the same stones as the two stones they found after the D-Raided member that raided the school exploded.

"Hold on a minute." Gajeel says, catching Roxanne's attention. "They gotta be the same stones we found in the school."

"You mean, these are Dragon Slayer stones?!"

"Yeah, those are definitely the stones." Gajeel says confidently. In total there were three stones. One of them was a silver color with a slight blue tint in it, having a black swirl inside of it; one of them was an electric blue with the same black swirl, instead going in the opposite direction, and the last one was a black stone with gold highlights on it. Roxanne observed them and gave Gajeel the two stones with the black swirls, while she kept the black and gold stone.

"I think you should take these stones. I don't know what type of stones they really are, but they may be you and Kyousuke's stones." Roxanne explains. Gajeel looked down at the stones, observing each and every detail of the stones.

"How do you expect me to use these?" Gajeel asks straightforwardly, Roxanne raising her shoulders in response.

"I don't know, how am I supposed to figure it out?"

"You're the smart girl around here, huh?! I thought you would know this!" Gajeel says annoyed, prompting Roxanne to come back.

"Says the one who called me a moron!" Roxanne says, crossing her arms and looking away.

"Yeah yeah, whatever." Gajeel says annoyed, calming down and crossing his arms. He put the stones away in his pockets, continuing on as Roxanne followed him, being calmed down. "I'm sick of this place. Let's get the hell out of here." Gajeel says. Suddenly, as the two take a step, a large explosion takes place right in-front of them, catching them unexpectedly in the blast. Gajeel grabbed Roxanne and jumped back, acting more as a shield since his iron scales would protect him.

"An explosion?!" Roxanne shouts confused. As she looks on at the explosion, she suddenly realizes that part of her is being warped away. "Gajeel! Something's warping me!"

"What the hell?!" Gajeel says, looking at Roxanne and seeing how she's being sucked into something. Gajeel didn't know what to do, especially since Roxanne suddenly became nothing but an image as she was teleported. She screamed until she disappeared, prompting Gajeel to look up and see two D-Raided members floating atop a flying saucer inside of the rock-land. One of the guys was Aerolin, the guy Natsu and Dayton beat up earlier, having used his magic to teleport Roxanne elsewhere. One of the guys stood up next to Aerolin, holding Aerolin by his clothing for the time being. He simply dropped Aerolin on the ground as Aerolin fell unconscious in the process. He looked really beat up too, having more wounds than what Dayton and Natsu gave him earlier.

"That's what you get for being such a piece of shit!" The guy standing next to Aerolin says. He had a younger sounding voice that had a cocky and brash tone to it, along with the cocky smile the guy wore in addition. He had black hair that was rather straight, giving him a more sleek appearance with his golden eyes to match. "Looks like I got to clean the trash." The guy says, lowering the saucer down and getting a good look at Gajeel. Gajeel was staring at him with a serious look in his eyes. He narrowed them slightly, and he wasn't going to let this guy beat him anytime soon. "Hey, what's with the mean look? Alright, I'll take it back and say you don't look that bad. However it is, you're dying anyway, so what's the point?"

"Ridiculous." Gajeel says with a serious tone. He started popping his knuckles once again, getting ready for another fight. "I'm gonna teach you a lesson about messin' with the wrong guy. Get too cocky and you're gonna pay for it." Gajeel says with a slight grin, only amusing the other guy. Suddenly, they started hearing a bunch of faint noise right next to them, and Gajeel turned to his right were Roxanne was.

"And here comes the effect." The guy says. A small distortion in space appears right where Roxanne was, and suddenly a black color starts coming out. It starts to reveal a person more or so, and when the person finally comes out, the portal closes. Gajeel widened his eyes in shock, the other guy also widening his eyes and gaining a sadistic smile. They both were looking at Kyousuke, who was looking at Gajeel surprised. Gajeel felt bewilderment, wondering how he got here and what he's done already. Kyousuke looked at the guy standing in-front of the two and his reaction was radically changed. His eyes widened and he stiffened, full of intense hatred and anger, along with the feeling of shock that the person he hated so much was standing right in-front of him. Kyousuke gripped his chokuto even tighter, it shaking as the tension in him sky-rocketed. He started feeling enraged, giving the guy a death-stare as Kyousuke was ready to kill him. Kyousuke was dead-set on making sure this guy was going to die. Why does he want to kill him so bad?


	19. Chapter 19: The Madness

Chapter 19: The Madness

Kyousuke looked at the guy ahead of him, giving him a menacing look that literally said _I will rip you to shreds. _The guy wasn't scared or anything, but he did remember why Kyousuke hated him so much. He looked really skinny; skinny as if it wasn't healthy. It was surprising that the guy would even have the confidence to take the two on like that. Gajeel looked at the guy with a serious stare, but he didn't hold near as much of a grudge with him as Kyousuke did. The guy just swung his arms in circles out of boredom, going on to tease Kyousuke for fun.

"Oh man, you came back, didn't you?" The guy says to Kyousuke, surprising Gajeel.

"Came back?" Gajeel says perplexed, watching as Kyousuke stood without moving a single muscle.

"I came back to kill you. That's all there is to it." Kyousuke says in a dark tone. The guy was surprised, becoming further intrigued.

"Kill me?" The guy was with a surprised and expressive tone. "Why would you want to do that when I can just mess around with you here and now? Don't you want to watch me pummel you around?"

"Blabber all you want, I'm still killing you." Kyousuke says, holding his chokuto as he prepares to fight the guy. Gajeel watched in confusion; not saying a word but not understanding exactly what this guy is catching onto. The guy just laughed in amusement, not paying attention much at all.

"Would you like to see what happened back then happen…?" The guy says before being stopped. Suddenly, Kyousuke runs off after the guy and catches up to him instantly, elbowing the guy in the stomach as the guy looks around in shock. Kyousuke proceeded to punch him directly in the chest, landing another successful hit and then going through him with his chokuto, attempting to slice him in half. After the slice, Kyousuke turned around and looked, but was met with a shocking result. The guy was standing there un-affected, turning and looking at Kyousuke with a perverse smile on his face. "Don't you want to see me throw you around like a rag doll?" The guy says, shocking Kyousuke.

"What the hell?! That slash should've sliced him in half, but not even a cut is there!" Kyousuke says in shock. Gajeel looked at where Kyousuke slashed the guy and noticed that the scar isn't even there, which shocked him too. Gajeel decided to hit the guy himself, moving forward and using his Iron Dragon's Club to impale him in the stomach. He got him and managed to push the guy back as he proceeded to hit the guy with a series of punches. The guy left himself wide-open, letting Gajeel hit him with each punch. Gajeel went to hit him once more, but the guy simply grabbed his arm and threw him over. The guy slammed Gajeel straight down on the ground, which would've possibly killed a normal person, but Gajeel was far from normal. Kyousuke came up and hit the guy with his electricity, slicing the guy with his electricity-enhanced hand and firing an electric orb into the guy's stomach, which did nothing.

"Is that it?" The guy taunts, leaving Kyousuke shocked.

"Dammit! How is this happen…?" Kyousuke says angrily before being hit in the chin. The guy did a round-house kick and hit him, causing Kyousuke to fly across the ground before hitting it painfully.

"You see! You two already lost. You doubted your own attacks because I'm one of the three most powerful members in this organization. Let your shitty doubt surround you so I can blast you two apart!" The guy says while trying to keep a calm laugh. Kyousuke and Gajeel got up, wondering how to beat this guy.

"I don't understand. His body looks physically weak, and punching him feels normal. Even his bones feel like they're cracking." Kyousuke explains shocked. Kyousuke flew past Gajeel and tried attacking the guy again, throwing a flurry of punches before using his magic to his advantage. He spun around in a circle, creating a large blue wave around himself with his chokuto before quickly sheathing the sword. He then crossed his arms in an x-formation, grabbing the wave and pulling his arms back to their original positions. The wave morphed into a large blue beam, ready to fire as he instead pushed it into himself. The wave morphed onto his body, lighting up his legs and arms an electric blue as he prepared to fight the guy. "Electric Dragon Beam: Wave Effectrix." Kyousuke says. He then attacks the guy with a series of punches and kicks as his attacks left a trail of electric-blue light. However, this was different. Kyousuke punched with more force like Gajeel would and did sweep kicks, sweeping the guy off of his feet as he did a black-flip kick. Gajeel watched in astonishment, gaining a grin on his face as Kyousuke did learn something from Gajeel. The last time they trained, Kyousuke analyzed how Gajeel fought, and Kyousuke decided to implement that into his fighting style. He didn't really focus on the combat spectrum of fighting beforehand, even though he was good with a sword. Kyousuke then jumped up in the air after the guy, grabbing him and quickly forcing him to the ground, slamming him down onto the ground with extreme force. The guy forced out a painful cough from the impact of the land, and looked up to see Kyousuke heading to punch him straight in the face. Before he could, the guy grabbed his arm and used his right arm to punch Kyousuke in the face. He then got himself up, pushing Kyousuke up with his knee as he kicked Kyousuke afterwards. However, this time, the kick resulted in an explosion that blasted Kyousuke back a ways before he landed on the ground painfully. "What the hell?! I don't remember this!" Kyousuke says in pain, looking up as Gajeel looked at the guy with surprise.

"Damn, this guy ain't no joke." Gajeel says to himself before kicking off after the guy. He turned his arm into an Iron Dragon's Sword and prepared to cut through the guy, managing to make contact with him but not being able to cut him. It looked real, but it was like the wounds were invisible. It had no effect. "This ain't some kind of illusion! I know I can hit him!" Gajeel says angrily, going after him and throwing a flurry of punches again. He finished with an uppercut to the chin before he punched him straight in the face with his Iron Dragon's Club. It pushed the guy a few feet back, Gajeel heading after the guy once more and using his Iron Dragon's Lance: Demon Logs spell. The guy looked up in surprise at Gajeel.

"Oh whoa!" The guy says astonished as Gajeel fires the spell. Several lances are fired from Gajeel's arm, hitting the guy precisely and managing to damage him greatly. However, as before, he is unaffected; no damage is present as would be expected. Gajeel came up and saw this, only to be baffled by the site.

"What the?! But how! I swear I hit him!"

"You did, but I'm fake. It's useless!" The other guy says cockily, getting up and throwing a series of punches at Gajeel. They were less effective on Gajeel because of his Iron Skin, but that soon changed when the guy started implementing his explosives into his fighting. He kicked Gajeel and blew him up into the air, jumping up and using his explosives to blow him back down to the ground. Gajeel hit the ground painfully, coming back up off the ground only slightly so the guy could blow him back towards Kyousuke's direction. The guy did so by kicking him with a round-house kick, blasting him back towards Kyousuke's location. Kyousuke got himself up, seeing Gajeel coming at him and quickly rushed over to him, grabbing him and sliding across the ground as he tried to stop. Eventually he did, managing to not slide into any walls as he pushed Gajeel back up, who turned and looked at him with a smile while slightly chuckling. Kyousuke let go of him, walking to Gajeel's side and staring at the other guy, who was there blabbering about what he wants to do with the two of them. Gajeel thought of a strategy to use against him.

"Hey, we're gonna have to team up if we wanna take this guy down." Gajeel suggests. Kyousuke looked at him and looked back at the guy, thinking about the strategy.

"I still don't know how Tetrion is doing it, but it's ridiculous. Either way, I'm up for teaming up."

"So that's his name huh? Tetrion?" Gajeel says amused, Kyousuke looking at him with a smile on his face. They couldn't help but laugh slightly at the ridiculousness of the name.

"The member's names are quite shitty sometimes. Anyway, let's get this over with." Kyousuke says calmly. He didn't care to pull out his chokuto this time, instead standing there and preparing to fight using hand-to-hand combat. Gajeel got up and noticed Kyousuke's more calm and friendly attitude.

"What's with the new attitude? Got a change of heart or something?" Gajeel asks surprised. Kyousuke turned and looked at him surprised, remembering back to the other part of the D-Raided intrusion when he was more hateful of everything. Kyousuke took a deep breath before responding.

"It was an effect of the madness." Kyousuke explains, surprising Gajeel.

"Madness?"

"The madness. This room right here is the Room of Insanity. We are majorly affected by the negative energy inside this room and are bound to go mad on varying levels when we leave this room. The madness caused me to become hateful and made me want to kill everything that I deemed an enemy. Luckily, it wasn't as strong of an influence since it's been years when I was last here at this fucked up place, but that doesn't matter. I'm more worried about the two of us leaving it now and what may happen if we lose control." Kyousuke explains to Gajeel. Kyousuke felt slight regret when explaining how he was here in the past to Gajeel, but Gajeel was more trustworthy to him than anyone else. Gajeel looked at Kyousuke with a more serious expression.

"What happened when you were here those years ago?" Gajeel asks calmly. Kyousuke calms down a bit and responds calmly.

"I'd rather not talk about it." Kyousuke says calmly and slightly angered. "Right now, we need to kill this guy. I don't hate him just because of the madness alone, you know." Kyousuke says with a determined look in his eyes. Gajeel gained a grin on his face and got ready to fight the guy.

"Yeah, let's drive this punk into the ground." Gajeel says in a thrilling tone. They were ready to crush this guy.

* * *

On the other-hand, Roxanne had issues to deal with of her own. After being teleported, she found herself falling down a vent in the ceiling.

"Where the heck am I?!" Roxanne says shocked before realizing that she was falling. She kept screaming until she slammed into the ground painfully. She lied there in slight pain since she landed right on her arm, but soon she got up and brushed all the dirt off her clothes. "Out of all the places in this base, why did I fall down a vent?!" Roxanne says annoyed. She looks to her left and suddenly sees a couple people running to her. She saw white on them and felt suddenly alert. "_Oh crap, it might be the D-Raided" _Roxanne thinks to herself nervously. She requips a large shuriken, ready to throw at any time until she realizes who the two idiots really were. It was Natsu, Happy, and Dayton. However, they were in D-Raided clothing (with the exception of Happy) and they did a poor job at putting on the clothes too. Roxanne got rid of her shuriken as Dayton realized it was her.

"Oh man Roxanne, what are you doing down here?" Dayton asks surprised, Roxanne crossing her arms in annoyance.

"I fell down a vent." Roxanne says annoyed. Dayton just sat there and started laughing uncontrollably.

"Oh man, Roxanne fell down a vent. She's such an idiot!" Dayton says while laughing, only to be punched in the face by an annoyed Roxanne. As Roxanne brushed her hand, she looked at Natsu weirdly. She couldn't help but wonder what they were really doing.

"Uh, what's with the outfits?" Roxanne asks confused, prompting Natsu to start explaining joyfully.

"Dayton had this awesome plan of sneaking in through the base wearing their clothes. They won't even know it's us!" Natsu says joyfully, receiving an overly baffled look from Roxanne.

"I don't know Natsu. Those clothes don't really fit you." Happy says, being unsure about the idea. Roxanne was so puzzled and dumbfounded at the idea of them even thinking that such an old trick like that would actually work, and how they put on their clothes was even more embarrassing. The shirt on Natsu was way too small, exposing most of his chest as the shirt went up to his ribs and his pants were really tight on him. Dayton's clothes were too big and looked all droopy and oversized on him.

"Isn't this a great plan Roxanne?! We're so much better than those jerks Kyousuke and Gajeel!" Dayton says happily as Natsu agrees.

"Yeah totally! They would never think of something as great as this!"

"That's because their intelligence level is higher than the two of you, and they wouldn't think of an idea as stupid as this. The people here are genetically engineered to be D-Raided members, so even if you tried, you're plan is bound to fail." Roxanne explains while leaving Dayton shocked at Roxanne's disapproval.

"Fine then. If you don't like it, we'll just think of something Gajeel and Kyousuke will do, and you can compare them!" Dayton says excitedly, leaving Roxanne to sigh at such.

"Oh great, here we go again." Roxanne says annoyed. The other three start planning their so called _great ideas_.

"Okay, I think Kyousuke and Gajeel would do something like change each other's clothes and pretend to be each other." Dayton explains, Natsu agreeing.

"Yeah, or Gajeel and Kyousuke would come begging for us to help them and we'll defeat all their enemies! Then they'll be forced to give us a happy impression in return!" Natsu says excitedly, Dayton totally agreeing. Roxanne just stood there and sighed in disappointment.

"_You know what I think Kyousuke and Gajeel would do?" _Roxanne thinks to herself disappointed. She imagines Kyousuke just standing there with his arms crossed and Gajeel patting her on the head just to annoy her with his grin on his face. Then Kyousuke and Gajeel would suddenly get each other a coffee drink (even though Gajeel usually never drinks coffee, unless there's metal in it), and they would kiss. She suddenly snapped out of her thoughts, wondering what she was thinking. "_Kyousuke and Gajeel kissing?!"_ Roxanne thinks to herself embarrassed. She sat down with her arms around her legs and put her head inside of her arms, upset about what she just thought. "Oh no. I've caught Dayton's love thought disease." She says depressingly, starting to cry of shame inside of her arms. "_Why must I be away from you Erza?! You must save me!" _Roxanne thinks to herself shocked. "_I mean, Kyousuke and Gajeel kissing isn't so bad, right? What about Dayton and Natsu? Oh no, the two idiots would be in a love of an overabundance of heat idiocy. What about Axel and Gray? Oh no, the ice couple. Then there's me and Erza, oh my gosh, I would NEVER kiss her. She's my friend and all, but we're not that close. Otherwise it would be the four love duos. Erza and I would be the __**Requipping Kissers**__, Dayton and Natsu would be the __**Destructive Heat Lovers**__, Axel and Gray would be the __**Heart of Ice**__ and Kyousuke and Gajeel would be the __**Iron Love Shock!" **_Roxanne thinks to herself in a mode of depression. The love thought disease that Dayton had has definitely hit her, but it won't be for long before it vanishes from her.

"What's all the commotion? Has your partners gotten into some trouble?" A womanly voice asks deviously. Roxanne looks up and turns her head to see a sword coming down upon her, catching everyone's attention as Roxanne rolls forward and out of the way of the sword. She flips around and gets up, getting in a defensive stance as she realizes that one of the D-Raided members has caught the four of them. Dayton and Natsu get behind her and defend her while Happy flies above the three.

"You're a D-Raided member. Did you come here to eradicate us?" Roxanne asks defensively, wondering what the woman's motives are. Dayton carefully looks at the woman and realizes something.

"Hey, it's that same woman from back at the hot springs!" Dayton points out, the woman smiling in response.

"Nice job remembering Dragon Slayer." The woman says, stopping upon noticing Dayton and Natsu's weird clothes. She suddenly started laughing at them, covering her mouth as she couldn't even control it. "Oh my, what is this? What were you two thinking; you could sneak in by pretending to be one of us?! We're no fashion show and none of us are fashion stars." The woman says, easily pointing out their plan as Dayton and Natsu's jaws drop at their plan easily being foiled.

"No…it can't be. Our plan was a failure." Dayton says in shock as Roxanne looks away annoyed.

"Yeah, and those so called _jerks _actually helped me out today." Roxanne explains, causing Dayton's and Natsu's jaws to drop again at Roxanne. Roxanne thought over it again. "Well, actually, it was just Gajeel." Roxanne explains as Dayton looks at Natsu, whose jaw drops even further. Dayton patted Natsu on the head gently.

"Don't worry. You've been defeated, but you can make a comeback tomorrow." Dayton says caringly and sadly as Natsu nods his head and thanks him while crying. The woman stopped laughing and managed to control herself.

"Unfortunately, you two will have your manifestations ripped out and your power will become ours. Too bad you don't have a second chance." The woman says sadistically, angering Natsu and Dayton and causing Roxanne to do something about it. This was the real fight.

"I would think about that again woman!" Dayton says angrily, rushing past Roxanne and heading after the woman angrily, covering his fist in lava.

"Refer to me by Zawisza; woman is a disgusting reference to me." Zawisza says annoyed, pulling out a long-sword and slashing Dayton's arm. Blood flies off of Dayton's arm as he painfully holds onto it, causing shock for the others.

"Dayton! No!" Roxanne says shocked. Dayton is unwilling to give up, turning his other hand into lava and preparing to punch her. However, she simply slashes through Dayton's other hand, causing him pain and letting Zawisza kick him in the stomach as he flies towards the wall.

"You bastard!" Natsu says angrily, preparing to attack as he flies up towards Zawisza with his flame enhanced fists. However, Zawisza simply uses her own magic.

"Gravity Magic: Impact" She says, firing a blast of Gravity at Natsu. It was enough to blast him into the wall and make a large dent in it. He struggled to get out since his arms were stuck to the wall with that being a result of the lasting effects of the gravity spell.

"Oh no! Natsu!" Happy says scared. He flew up in the air and stayed there so he wouldn't get caught in the battle.

"Alright, it's my turn." Roxanne says confidently, requipping a shuriken and throwing it at Zawisza, who manages to slice through it like it was nothing. Roxanne stopped in her tracks, being shocked at the result. "What?! She just cut through it like butter!"

"My sword's cutting power increases when it's soaked in blood. Call you're lava friend over there the idiot if you want to cast blame." Zawisza explains. Roxanne instead requips a water cannon, firing it at Zawisza.

"_If that's the case, I just need to get the blood off the sword by soaking it." _Roxanne thinks to herself. Zawisza dodged the first shot, but Roxanne turned and fired ahead of her, knowing that she would fly into the water. Indeed she did, but she then fired a gravity blast at Roxanne and blasted her against the wall. She hit the wall painfully, also getting slightly stuck into the wall like Natsu. Dayton got up and goes to attack Zawisza again, using a different technique this time.

"Lava Dragon's Burst Shot!" Dayton shouts, creating a ball of lava and literally punching the ball at Zawisza. It hit her as she was too distracted and it burst apart, melting part of her dress and burning her. While shouting in pain, she patted the burn spots angrily to stop it from burning anymore of her clothes, giving Dayton a menacing look afterwards.

"You little brat! My clothes are TOP NOTCH! How DARE YOU fire your stupid magic at me!" She yells angrily, Dayton running up to her with his lava enhanced magic.

"Screw your stupid clothes! That's the whole point to fighting!" Dayton says angrily, offending Zawisza as he punches her in the stomach. She almost threw up a bit since he hit her directly in the stomach, and he went to take the sword she had away from her.

"You TOUCHED ME! Little BRAT!" Zawisza says in a rage, kneeing Dayton painfully and grabbing his arm. She spun him around and threw him at Natsu, using another Gravity Impact so Dayton smashed into Natsu painfully (enough to crack bones). She knew Natsu was the strongest, so she made sure he wouldn't be able to get out. Unfortunately for her, Dayton only got half of Natsu stuck to the wall. He could still see what was going on and he had his hands free so he could use spells while being stuck if he wanted to. Dayton felt weird being smashed into the wall with Natsu.

"Oh man, sorry pal."

"Hey, no big deal man!" Natsu says cheerfully. Roxanne, on the other-hand, got free from the wall and requipped a sword.

"Alright you pedantic witch! How about we fight on equal terms and see how that goes?!" Roxanne says confidently, holding the sword out in-front of her. However, she suddenly became overwhelmed by her own senses. Everything suddenly went out of place for her, and everything was all wobbly and rippled like water. It was mainly her vision that was affected. "_Whoa! What the hell is this?!" _Roxanne thinks to herself panicked. She couldn't understand why she felt so out-of-place. Zawisza suddenly noticed her sudden shock and took this as an opportunity to strike her down. Roxanne turned and saw it coming, so she tried to block it. It was rather difficult though. She was all flimsy with the sword and she wasn't doing it was well as she could have. "_This messed up vision; I can't focus properly!" _Roxanne thinks to herself agitated, unaware of the strike that Zawisza dealt to her. Roxanne was slashed across the stomach painfully as Zawisza started to gain the upper-hand easily. Dayton saw Roxanne struggling and knew she could do better.

"Come on Roxanne! What are you doing?! You have to focus! Beat her Roxanne! Come on!" Dayton shouts desperately, wanting Roxanne to fight back properly. Roxanne was wobbling left and right in her stance, as she couldn't control what was happening. She saw Zawisza attempt to deal a strike down onto her, but she took her own sword and blocked the other sword from getting to her. However, because of everything suddenly being all rippled and unclear, she lost her grip and Zawisza dealt two slashes in an X on her chest before blasting her against the wall with the Gravity Impact. Natsu and Dayton saw it themselves and felt rage and shock.

"Roxanne!" Natsu shouts angrily, trying to get Roxanne's attention. He tried breaking free of the wall, but to no avail. Roxanne's vision wasn't clear and she couldn't get up properly. She tried, but she ended up falling on her own knees again as she stared at the ground, holding herself up with her sword.

"_I can't…control this. What's happening? Who…did this to me?" _Roxanne thinks to herself upset. She could hear Natsu and Dayton shouting for her to get up, but she was losing control of her own body. Zawisza walked over and stood over her, preparing to kill her as Dayton and Natsu screamed for her to get up.

"ROXANNE! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING! GET UP!"

"ROXANNE, DON'T LET THIS WOMAN BEAT YOU! COME ON!" Both Dayton and Natsu scream respectively. They both struggled to break free but the added Gravity Impact doubled the amount of time they would be stuck to the wall. As they struggled, Zawisza pulled her sword up and prepared to deal the final blow, wondering how this will turn out.

"It was an okay battle I suppose, but your end is here. Goodbye ignorant waste!" Zawisza says out of pity, preparing to slash her as Dayton, Natsu and Happy scream for her. Roxanne suddenly can only hear herself as she loses control.

"_I can't…I lost it." _Roxanne thinks to herself. Right as the sword comes down; Roxanne grabs it by the blade with it seemingly cutting her hand. Zawisza gasps in shock as drops of blood fall.

"What the hell is this?!" Zawisza says shocked. Suddenly, Roxanne pulls the sword straight from Zawisza's grip, thrusting it right into her and pushing her away by jumping up and pushing off of the tip of the sword's handle with her feet, causing her to black-flip, which seems impossible to do. Zawisza was thrust back into the wall behind her, screaming in pain as the sword went through the lower right part of her torso. "AAAGH! That hurts you bitch! UUUGGGH!" Zawisza in pain. Dayton and Natsu turn back to see Roxanne standing on the blade that she has, only it being stuck in the wall. She was standing there laughing sadistically and uncontrollably. She had a huge, sadistic grin on her face as her eyes were widened greatly.

"Man, you can't be serious! You flew like I hit a home run!" Roxanne says with a crazy and sadistic tone. It was like she was all laughing and everything but sadistic and insane at the same time. Dayton and Natsu started to worry over this.

"Roxanne! What's wrong with you?!" Dayton shouts with concern. Roxanne just kept laughing, ignoring their comments and only being interested in Zawisza.

"Oh my, your body is totally unfit for that dress, BITCH!" Roxanne says while laughing even more. It was like she couldn't even stop. Zawisza was shocked at what Roxanne was doing.

"_What is this?! Is she some sort of monster?! Has she been affected by the Room of Insanity?!" _She thought to herself shocked. Indeed, she was being controlled by _the madness._


	20. Chapter 20: Roxanne Gone Mad

Chapter 20: Roxanne Gone Mad

Roxanne was all wobbly and giggly, unable to control herself from the madness that has overtaken her. Zawisza couldn't come to a correct conclusion as to why Roxanne was acting this way, so she just decided to fight her without trying to figure it out. Dayton, Natsu, and Happy, on the other-hand, have been concerned and shocked at Roxanne's actions. They couldn't even assume why she would be doing it. Zawisza just got up and held her sword, wondering how to attack Roxanne in the state that Roxanne was in.

"Oh whoa, everything is so wobbly and funny." Roxanne says while giggling uncontrollably. She still had that weird smile on her face too, freaking out Zawisza in the process. It was like one of those dolls that were meant to scare people.

"That smile is so disgusting, please reframe from using…" Zawisza says until she gets hit in the head by Roxanne swinging around her sword. A large cut formed on her head and blood started dripping from it. Zawisza saw the blood; her anger increasing as Roxanne just stood there and spun around uncontrollably. "You brat! I said I hate you SMILING!" Zawisza says while slashing Roxanne and pinning her sword into her stomach. Roxanne, having gone mad, simply pulled it out and moved around like it was nothing.

"Oh that's too bad cause I like it." Roxanne says in her giggly tone, spinning around and kicking Zawisza really hard in the face. It caused her to fall over and slide into the wall as Roxanne walked around all crazy. "Oh man that's funny." Roxanne says while constantly wobbling still. Both Dayton and Natsu looked at her with complete shock and confusion; wondering why she was acting that way and what was going on with her.

"I know Roxanne gets a little crazy sometimes but this is too much." Dayton explains surprised. Natsu tried pulling himself out while pushing Dayton as well, but they were pretty stuck into the wall, especially since Dayton was on top of Natsu. He kept trying until the two of them heard Zawisza start talking.

"I wonder if she was in that madness room. Was she..?" Zawsiza explains before being picked up by Roxanne. She grabbed her by the head and was about to pummel her into the wall.

"Oh come on, you can do better than that, can't you?!" Roxanne shouts while taking her head and slamming it into the wall. She proceeded to drag it across the wall before slamming her down on the ground, having a more sadistic looking grin that was insane looking this time. She then just started kicking her as if she was bullying Zawisza. You could hear her laughing while doing it too. Dayton watched in shocked and horror as if Roxanne may do that in the future to him, but he was also worried like Natsu was, who kept trying to break free from the wall.

"Hey come on Roxanne! Snap out of it! This isn't like you!" Natsu shouts to no avail. He just saw Roxanne spinning like she was hyper after kicking Zawisza. He also saw Zawisza getting up, having a disgusted expression on her face. She gripped her sword tightly in rising anger.

"Uuuugggghhh…..YOU…"

"Roxanne, get out of the way!" Natsu screams as Zawisza slashes Roxanne across her stomach. It hit her and her grin just got bigger, right as she got up and looked at her blood. "Oh wow, it's so pretty." Roxanne says, admiring the blood as she spun around. After Zawisza hit her, she called her an_ annoying skank, _causing Natsu and Zawisza get into a little argument while Roxanne continues to go crazy.

"HEY! She's not a skank! You take that back right now!" Natsu shouts angrily, initiating the argument as Zawisza picks up her sword and continues trying to dodge Roxanne.

"Screw you immature brat! Why would I ever listen to someone who gets the stupidest ideas?"

"Shut up! You take back calling her that right now or I'm gonna come and make you take it back!" Natsu says angrily, trying to break free as he starts loosening up slightly. Zawisza gave him an irritated expression in response while kicking Roxanne in the stomach. Roxanne was still walking around while laughing with that creepy, sadistic expression on her face.

"How dare you threaten me flame-boy! Once I'm done with this brat I'm going to chop you up into little pieces!" Zawisza angrily yells at Natsu. They continue to bark at each other with arguments as Natsu tries to break free. Happy was just flying in the air, watching the whole situation happen while feeling guilty as he wanted to help Natsu but was afraid of Zawsiza easily getting to him like Aerolin did.

"_Wow. What kind of partner am I? Natsu needs my help!" _Happy thinks to himself, trying to regain his confidence. He looked down at Dayton and realized something strange. Dayton was doing _the unusual. _He had his eyes closed and he seemed rather calm, as if he was trying to figure out something or use a special magic technique. Happy became confused upon seeing this.

"Why is Dayton not doing anything but closing his eyes?" Happy asks himself confused while turning back to Natsu, who was still arguing with Zawisza. Natsu just kept yelling at her about taking back her insult to Roxanne while Zawisza kept rambling on about why he was such an idiot. Suddenly, both of their attentions turn to Roxanne as she started doing something weird.

"Can't you do anything else like _stripping?" _Roxanne says, causing Natsu to think of Gray instantly and Zawisza to cover her mouth to prevent herself from puking.

"Oh my god that's utterly putrid." She says disgusted, looking at Roxanne as if Roxanne was into her or something. The things Roxanne said later on only creeped her out even more.

"NO?! Then what about eye gouging huh?" Roxanne suggests while wobbling and smiling. She kept giggling like a messed-up child, sounding like she was laughing out of hilariousness and evil at the same time.

"Come on Roxanne, stop it!" Natsu pleads, trying to break free as he loosened up a little bit more. Even Natsu's flames failed to help heat up the wall and loosen the grip on him. Zawisza became disgusted and annoyed, realizing Natsu trying to break free.

"Dammit! I might as well kill you now before I become brainwashed by your stupidity!" Zawisza shouts, taking her long-sword and proceeding to pierce Natsu with it. She was inches away from making contact with his heart, about to pierce her as Dayton had his eyes closed still. Right before she made contact with his chest, Happy came flying down, grabbing Zawisza by her shirt and tossing her forward.

"Leave Natsu alone!" Happy shouts angrily, receiving a shocked and angrily stare from Zawisza as she tripped back and fell onto the ground. Natsu looks and sees Happy, gaining a smile on his face as Zawisza gets up and scolds Happy.

"Thanks a lot Happy!" Natsu says encouragingly.

"Stupid fur-ball, I'll cut you…" Zawisza shouts. She is suddenly pulled up into the air, screaming as she flails her arms in panic. "AAAGH! What is this?!" Zawisza screams while flailing her arms. Both Happy and Natsu looked at Zawisza shocked while Roxanne kept spinning around without a single care in the world (she is still gone mad though). Suddenly, Dayton opens his eyes and smiles, realizing that his plan was a success.

"Ha! I knew it would work!" Dayton says to himself proudly, watching as Zawisza dangles from a stream of Lava that's attached to her leg. "Lava Dragon Slayer: Magma Strings." Dayton says, finalizing the technique as he has her in his grasp. She dropped her sword while dangling from the lava, looking down in horror as it fell to the ground. Looking up while upside-down, she sees Roxanne walking all strange and laughing; coming towards her slowly. She turns her head and sees Dayton holding his hands in a certain formation, realizing he's the one behind her situation, shooting him a deadly glare.

"How dare you touch me with your disgusting magic! You let go of me right now!"

"No way! You're telling me what's up with Roxanne right now, or I'll melt your ankles apart." Dayton threatens. You could tell he was serious; giving her a serious look without moving a single muscle. Fear started to enter her as she started to fear Dayton for the first time, being in a tight situation. Fearing what Roxanne might do to her in this position, she gave in and started explaining.

"Alright fine. This is only because I don't want that gross skank touching me the way she is." Zawisza explains, angering Dayton and Natsu slightly. "I don't know for sure, but she must've gone into the Room of Insanity."

"The Room of Insanity?" Dayton says shocked, Natsu also being shocked. "What the hell is that?!"

"It's the madness room you dumbass! It was there so that we could gain power by drawing from its energy. However, due to our altered genetic structures, we were unaware of the causes against people that were not members of the D-Raided." Zawisza explains in a serious tone. She clearly didn't like the position she was in. Roxanne had grabbed her sword in her gone mad state, and she was swinging it around like a toy. Natsu was more concerned as to her next statement.

"Yeah, and what happens to someone who isn't a D-Raided member?!"

"They are affected by the negative energy so much that once they leave and use their magic energy, the madness takes over." Zawisza explains, shocking Natsu and Dayton. Happy also was shocked, flying around while panicking slightly.

"Wait, does that mean she was in the Room of Insanity?" Happy questions.

"You stupid cat; of course she was!" Zawisza shouts angrily, upsetting Natsu a little bit. "And anyone one else with you that comes out of that room is most likely to face the same fate!" Zawisza explains, unknowingly causing Roxanne to freeze as she hits Zawisza's arm with her own sword. Roxanne froze in place, wide-eyed, unable to comprehend what was going to happen. Suddenly, she started screaming in pain, covering her head as she swung her head around in panic and let go of the sword. Zawisza saw the sword falling, and grabbed it before it could get out of hands reach. It cut her hand since she was holding it by the blade, but that didn't bother her. She then faced Dayton and went ahead to fire a spell at him. She fired her Gravity Impact spell and hit Dayton, causing him to cough up some slight blood from the impact since it was a direct hit. It was definitely enough to cause the lava trap to dissipate and let go of her. Zawisza fell to her feet, seeing Roxanne scream in pain and struggle to deal with it. Zawisza simply kicked Roxanne as she flew into the wall, still dealing with the pain. She gained a perverse smile on her face, but that faded away when Natsu came up and hit her in the stomach.

"You're gonna pay for this!" Natsu says angrily, hitting her with a flame enhanced punch as Zawisza felt her stomach cave in. It felt like she was being forced to throw up; being hit in the stomach like that.

"Dammit, how did he…?" Zawisza thinks to herself shocked, wondering how he escaped the gravity impact that quickly. She suddenly figured out the trick. "That's it," she says cleverly, "You used the gravity impact I hit that kid with to break yourself free, didn't you?"

"I'm not a kid! I'm almost 18!" Dayton says annoyed, causing Zawisza to widen her eyes in shock.

"You can't be serious!" Zawisza says baffled. However, her focus of attention quickly shifted when Natsu punched her in the face angrily, leaving a mark on her face.

"That's for calling Roxanne a skank!" Natsu says angrily. Zawisza felt the pain in her face, causing her to slash at Natsu again. Natsu managed to duck and dodge the sword, causing Zawisza to react in a state of fear by using her gravity magic on his face. She swings her arms back and separates her index finger from the rest of her fingers.

"Gravity Magic: Fall!" She shouts, causing the gravity around Natsu to increase greatly. It pushed him to the ground and immobilized him, making any sort of movement impossible for him. Happy and Dayton looked in shock; Dayton still immobilized by the gravity magic himself as Zawisza gained that perverse smile again on her face. "Can't handle the pressure, can you?" Zawisza questions, Natsu looking up at her angrily.

"You just wait, I'm gonna make you pay for this." Natsu says angrily, watching as Zawisza prepares to slice him apart using a special technique.

"We'll see about that flame-boy." Zawisza says, narrowing her eyes as she holds up her sword. With it, it starts to glow a green color, becoming more and more vibrant with each passing second. Dayton suddenly realizes that she is going to kill him, and his eyes widen in shock.

"_No! I have to break free_!" Dayton thinks to himself angrily, trying with all his might to break free of the effects of the gravity spell. Zawisza gives one last fatal stare at Natsu.

"It's time to die." She says, taking her sword and preparing to cut Natsu. However, she hesitates. She stands there, shocked that Natsu is attempting to resist the pressure of the gravity. He was pushing himself up slowly, resisting the gravity enough to allow a little bit of movement.

"I won't let you hurt them anymore, you got that?!" Natsu says confidently, Zawisza and Dayton looking at them surprised and shocked. It hit them differently. Dayton felt sudden surprise at Natsu's proclamation to protect them, not realizing he cared for him that much. It hit him in a strange way, making him feel more comfortable and at ease with himself than before. He laughed a little on the inside.

"_Of course that's him. I know I wouldn't let someone hurt Roxanne and get away with it_. _At least I wouldn't_." Dayton thinks to himself happily. On the other-hand, Zawisza felt despair. Memories of people being blasted apart right before her eyes came rushing back to her, along with her screaming not to hurt them as she got blasted along with them. Hatred started to fill her up, and she had it. The sword glowed even brighter as Zawisza's anger started taking over.

"What gives YOU the right to say such SHIT?! DIE!" Zawisza screams, taking the sword and coming right down on Natsu, who was still trying to get up. The sword made a gap for itself through the gravity magic and allowed it to cut down and make it to Natsu cleanly. Dayton's heartbeat sped up, his eyes widening as he's about to scream out for Natsu, managing to break free of the wall and chase after Zawisza. Happy was screaming and crying too, flying with Dayton in horror as they both try to stop her. As fast as they were running, they wouldn't be able to stop her. Just as the blade started to cut through Natsu's skin, blood started oozing out from the cut; it slowly going deeper as the shock exploded within Dayton and Happy. As the blade went even deeper at a very slow rate, Roxanne came in and elbowed Zawisza right in the stomach. She hit it directly, causing Zawisza to lose grip of her sword and cause the blade to turn on its side, immediately being affected by the added gravity and hitting Natsu's back painlessly. Roxanne gave Zawisza a deadly stare, ready to take her down any moment now.

"You lay a finger on him…and I'll rip you to SHREDS!" Roxanne screams, having requipped a metallic glove on her right fist. She punched Zawisza directly on the Solar Plexus, causing Zawisza to cough up blood in the process. While doing so, Roxanne directed her magic energy to her fist, causing the power and impact of the punch to be even more devastating. Zawisza coughed up even more blood as Roxanne screamed while pushing her away with the punch. She eventually sent her flying into the wall, causing her whiplash as she coughed up even more blood and suffered muscle tensions within her increasing. After hitting Zawisza, Roxanne spun around and smashed a fist into the ground where Natsu was, cancelling out the effect of the Gravity Magic by smothering it with the glove. Within seconds, Natsu pushed himself up from the ground as Dayton and Happy grouped up with the two in relief; both extremely happy that Natsu isn't dead. Happy flew into Natsu apologetically, crying on him as Natsu was happy he was okay. Dayton, on the other-hand, got distracted by Roxanne's weapon.

"Whoa Roxanne. What the heck is that thing?"

"It's the GKX-1500 Magic Amplifier. It amplifies my magic power 10 times more when used to maximum potential." Roxanne explains, which Dayton stares in awe at, not knowing what she really meant by it. After snapping out of it, he looked at Roxanne with a concerned look on his face, noticing how she was tweaking parameters on the glove.

"Hey Roxanne, are you okay?" Dayton asks concerned. Roxanne looked at him with a slightly surprised expression on her face, being surprised he would ask her something like that.

"What…do you mean?" Roxanne asks a little embarrassed. Dayton went straight to the point.

"Well, you suddenly went crazy and started acting strange. You kept laughing and dancing around, and you called this girl a bitch and stuff." Dayton explains, causing Roxanne to blush in embarrassment as she regretted doing that. "You even asked her to stri…"

"NO!" Roxanne says, putting a hand to Dayton's face that made him stop instantly.

"Okay okay! I'm sorry!" Dayton says apologetically, fearing her wrath even though she didn't show it. As they were talking, Zawisza fell to the floor, being on her knees as she was trying to recover from Roxanne's last attack before taking them on again. She noticed how Roxanne snapped out of the madness she was just in, wondering how things will turn out for her now. Roxanne kept talking with Dayton as Natsu and Happy reconciled. Happy was crying about how Natsu was almost killed and Natsu was comforting him in response, just like the best friends they were. Roxanne told Dayton some important information.

"I heard it all." Roxanne explains. Dayton looked at her surprised, realizing that she wasn't completely out of it when she went mad.

"You did?" Dayton says surprised. "So you know about the madness?"

"Yes, I do. The problem is though, I wasn't there alone." Roxanne explains. Dayton immediately jumps to the question.

"Who was it?"

"Take a guess, I said it earlier." Roxanne tells him. Dayton tried to think about it as Natsu and Happy came back up to the two, the two watching as Dayton gained a shocked expression on his face.

"What?! Are you saying that Kyousuke…?"

"It wasn't Kyousuke, but it was Gajeel." Roxanne explains. Dayton widened his eyes even more. He knew that Gajeel was up to Natsu's level, so things could get dangerous.

"Gajeel was in the madness room with you?!" Dayton says shocked as Natsu overhears him. Natsu becomes shocked and angry too, hearing that Gajeel also has been affected by the madness.

"What?! Gajeel was down there with you?!" Natsu says angrily. Roxanne closed her eyes and nodded in response, being somewhat torn about it.

"His personality already shows that when he gets influenced by the madness, he'll lose control in a more horrific way than we can imagine. We need to get to him as soon as possible." Roxanne explains, focusing her attention on Zawisza. "But first, we need to stop her. She's a potential threat to us as of the moment."

"Don't worry Roxanne. I'm not going to let you down." Dayton explains, walking up to Roxanne's side and packing his fists together. "I can see that you're a lot more confident now." Dayton says calmly, causing Roxanne to look at him surprised. She gasped slightly, not realizing that he would realize such a thing. He turned and gave her a smile, to which she turned and smiled in response. She thought about it a little bit before focusing her attention on Zawisza, who was getting up and getting ready for round two of the fight.

"_Gajeel, you helped me regain my strength and confidence."_ Roxanne thinks to herself calmly, remembering how he helped her. "_And Erza, you have been a role model to me from the start." _Roxanne thinks to herself calmly, remembering how she admired Erza so much. "_I will find you guys and we'll win this battle, and I will find Kyousuke too! I will bring the real Kyousuke back!" _Roxanne thinks to herself confidently, gripping her fist tighter as she geared up for the real fight. Zawisza had her sword in hand, ready to start round two.

"What? You think you can beat me now?" Zawisza asks surprised, receiving a confident response from Roxanne.

"I wasn't even really me when we were fighting. Plus, that gravity magic of yours was an issue too. You weren't really fighting." Roxanne explains, causing Zawisza to get offended over the statement. "You knew Natsu and Dayton would've pummeled you, so you used the gravity magic to restrain them. I still could've beaten you had the madness inside of me not taken over. Now that I know how to stop it, things won't go your way so easily." Roxanne explains, hearing Natsu pack his fists together.

"I'm gonna make you pay for what you did." Natsu says determined. Dayton got in a fighting stance.

"Alright, let's do this." Dayton says confidently, everyone nodding and saying, "Right." They were really going to turn the tables on Zawisza this time.


	21. Chapter 21: Near Death, Then to Revenge

**A/N: Hey guys (and girls). I want to apologize for the super late chapter upload. Dealing with music here has been a hassle, and ideas for this fanfic have been a struggle. I've been too excited for the way this is going to end that I've been struggling to write what's currently happening, and therefore have done other things (such as music) because I couldn't bring myself to finish this. I also became very emotional about the ending and such, and because certain parts of this story are very sad, I struggled too. **

**As an apology and reward, I have made this chapter longer than usual, so you'll be more entertained than usual. I'll keep trying to finish this, since the end is what I'm most excited about. Other than that, please have faith in me. If you guys would go onto my profile page and vote for your favorite OC of mine (Dayton, Roxanne, Kyousuke), that would most definitely be a confidence booster for me. **

**That's pretty much it. I'm bumping up the fanfiction to Rated M due to reasons of major brutality in this chapter, but if it is able to be put in Rated T still, please let me know (though I doubt it because I spiced it up even more after typing this haha)! Please have faith in me and review this. Positive thoughts are what I need most! Thank you so much for being a fan of this fanfiction and I seriously hope you enjoy this chapter! Have a nice day! :D**

Chapter 21: Near Death, Then to Revenge

Ever since Roxanne had fallen down that hole; Erza, Lucy, and Gray were searching for her while dragging Axel along with them, literally. They continuously looked everywhere they could to find her, not knowing exactly where she went. Looking down the hole she fell in wasn't very helpful; as it only led to them figuring out she fell down a bunch of ledges. They could hear some sounds coming from below them from time to time, but they didn't really know what that was. While they were looking for Roxanne, they also had to figure out what was up with Axel. At one point on their search for Roxanne, Axel had begun to move in a strange fashion. It looked like he was about to puke, and the three noticed this and stopped. They set him down flat on the ground and carefully observed him as he jerked up once in a while. It was like something was trying to come out of him, and it became more apparent when Axel started to jerk around more often as time passed (mainly upward in the stomach area). Eventually, something more drastic happened. He quickly pushed himself up and ran away from the three, eventually stopping and puking out in pain. The other three became both shocked and disgusted, not expecting such a response from Axel. The way he was puking was also weird; it was like he was trying to force something from his body. Lucy became seriously grossed out, wondering what he was even doing. Eventually, he puked out some weird, round thing that was peach colored. It was squishy and it bounced on the floor a bit, only for Axel to instantly stomp on it and make it pop. It popped and oozed a weird orange substance as it made a dying noise like some creature. Axel showed a face of relief afterwards, being relieved that he crushed it as the other three get up and run up to him in a hurry. Lucy felt really grossed out as she tried to hold in her temptation to barf.

"_Man that was really gross." _Lucy says, wondering what the heck it was as she tried to not think about it. Erza and Gray were too focused on Axel though, mainly wondering if he's alright and what happened to him.

"Are you alright?" Erza asks Axel as she, Lucy, and Gray surround him. Axel was breathing a bit heavy but not too much. He looked up at the three and had a relaxed expression on his face.

"I'm fine. Just a reaction from that substance she injected me with." Axel says, surprising the group.

"How did you remember that?" Erza asks surprised, the other two standing there surprised as well.

"You remembered that?" Gray says surprised, Axel having a calm and laid-back attitude.

"Well yeah. It was like I could see everything but I couldn't move." Axel says, surprising the group even more. Erza thought about it and came to the conclusion that he was in a coma, and that Gray had to be as well since he was in the same situation as he was.

"It's most likely that you and Gray were in a coma when we found you. Do you remember anything after that?" Erza asks the two. Shockingly, they didn't. They remembered each other but they couldn't remember what happened.

"What the heck," Gray says shocked, "it's like my memory hit a blank."

"Me too," Axel says surprised, "nothing's coming up."

"What, are you serious?" Lucy says surprised, wondering how that happened. Axel shook his head and Gray stood there puzzled, trying to remember what happened.

"I think that lab technician said something about erasing our memory." Axel recalls, surprising the group.

"Erasing our memory?"

"Yeah, something about making sure we don't stop his plans or something cheesy like that." Axel says, slightly cringing at the way he said it. Erza and Lucy became surprised, and Erza wanted to know if he could remember anything more.

"Do you remember anything else?" Erza asks in a state of hope, wondering if she can recover any information that may be incredibly important to them. Perhaps they could use this information to stop him, that is, if he had any information that was useful. Axel stood there trying to remember it all, but it was difficult.

"Gray and I were fighting that lab guy, but…he was a lot stronger than we thought. He also seemed intent on taking out…some guy. I don't know who but he seemed really desperate about it. He also was after Lucy Heartfilia if I remember right." Axel explains. Lucy felt struck, wondering why the D-Raided is so dead-set on going after her.

"Why do they want _me _so bad?" Lucy says, putting a hand on her keys. She cared deeply for her celestial spirits, treating them more as partners and friends rather than just _tools. _She immediately thought that they wanted her keys for some reason, thinking about all the disastrous possibilities that may happen with such. It's always her keys that are involved you know. Axel tried to remember more but couldn't.

"I can't remember anything past that." Axel finalizes, leaving it as that. There may be more to the story though. They all turned and looked at Lucy, who was both confused and worried. Why are they so intent on going after her? Do her celestial powers have something to do with their goals? She started to think deeper into it until Gray reassured her.

"Don't worry Lucy. We won't let these creeps lay their hands on you." Gray says, trying to get her to brighten up a bit more. She looked at Gray surprised, but then gained a smile on her face in response.

"Thanks Gray." She simply says with a smile on their face. Erza couldn't help but smile a bit herself, and Axel just stood there motionless. Suddenly, a loud boom was heard and vibrations were felt in the ground, catching everyone in the group off-guard and leaving them to wonder what it was.

"What the heck?"

"What was that?!" Gray and Erza say respectively.

* * *

As they stood there wondering what was going on, beneath the surface ensued a battle with a person who seemed indestructible. Kyousuke appeared in front of Tetrion and went to slash him straight downward on his left arm, but he simply grabbed it without any scars as a result.

"I'm fake," Tetrion says in response; causing Kyousuke much confusion, "didn't I tell you that?"

"Why the hell are you talking like that?" Kyousuke says annoyed, going to slice him across the stomach with his electricity-enhanced hand. The guy jumped back in response though, doing a backflip afterwards as Kyousuke went after him straight on. As he did, Tetrion set his focus on Kyousuke, unaware of Gajeel coming from behind.

"Ain't so smart now, are you?" Gajeel says confidently, using his Iron Dragon's Club to attack from behind. However, Tetrion simply let it pass by him as he went straight for Gajeel, using an explosive directly on his chest as he is blasted back painfully in response. Gajeel uses the ground as a support to stop him from going back so far, looking down at his shirt afterwards to see a large burn mark on the center of his chest.

"Whoops!" Tetrion says while lifting a finger as an explosion strangely occurs on Gajeel's chest, flipping him over onto the ground chest-first. "That was an added bonus." Tetrion says as Gajeel gives him an irritated stare. Kyousuke came up and started attacking without his chokuto once more; throwing a barrage of punches at the guy who left himself wide open, just to make Kyousuke feel weaker. However, Kyousuke used a different technique. He came up with his hands energized, putting an extreme amount of pressure on Tetrion's Solar Plexus.

"Electric Dragon's Z-Force." Kyousuke says, releasing the magic energy in the form of an attack that does internal damage. This time Tetrion managed to cough up a bit of blood that was strangely purple, Kyousuke grinning slightly in response. "I knew it," Kyousuke says confidently, Gajeel getting up and looking at him surprised, "We can do some internal damage by forcing our energy directly into him."

"It isn't that easy idiot!" Tetrion says, Kyousuke simply ignoring his comment. He went straight towards him and planned to do the same thing, only for Tetrion to grab his arms and blow them up. Kyousuke instantly pulled his arms away to make sure they wouldn't get blasted off (as if that was a possibility), but Tetrion hit him straight on the head, blasting him down straight into the ground painfully as Kyousuke shouted out in pain. Kyousuke however was dead-set on killing him, so he instantly got up despite the pain and tried to attack once more, only to get blasted back with an explosion to the chest like Gajeel. Gajeel then came up and continued attacking once more, throwing a series of punches once again. Tetrion jumped back this time to try to blow Gajeel off the ground straight into the air, but Gajeel jumped after him and used his Iron Dragon's Club to do some more damage. It hit Tetrion and pushed him back a great ways but it still had no real effect, like all of his other attacks and Kyousuke's included. Gajeel and Kyousuke continued to get irritated as a result, not understanding how he's doing it.

_"What the hell is this magic?!"_ They both think at the same time, both jumping after him as he starts to become surrounded. Tetrion isn't fast enough to stop them, resulting in the both of them punching him upwards. As he flies upward, the two jump straight up simultaneously and punch him directly in the face, then round-house kick him and send him flying into the ground. As Tetrion got himself up after the attack, he was shocked, wondering what they were up to as he saw the two of them sucking in air it seemed.

"Their cheeks are puffing up, this is ridiculous!" Tetrion taunts while laughing. Kyousuke and Gajeel were actually preparing to fire their respective Dragon's Roars. Once ready, they turned an eye at each other and notified each other they were ready. They then fired it; a blast of Iron and Electricity that interweaved into a swarm of deadly metal that would shred him into pieces and electrocute him in the process. Tetrion looked at the blast in awe as it hit him, shrouding him in a collection of electrical iron. It was powerful enough to leave a small crater in his surroundings. The two landed on the ground afterwards, both pairs of eyes locked onto Tetrion's surroundings. They weren't that worn out though as you would expect; just a bit of breathing here and there. They both were anxious and highly interested in knowing what happened, which was difficult to figure out due to the debris that surrounded him.

"We had to have hit him that time." Kyousuke says with a serious tone. However, they saw him standing as if nothing happened. He walked out of the debris like it was nothing, leaving Gajeel and Kyousuke to be appalled by the sighting. Their eyes widened in utter shock. "WHAT?!" Kyousuke says shocked, unable to comprehend why such events happened.

"No way," Gajeel says baffled, "We should've done some major damage by now."

"Guess it's my turn isn't it?" Tetrion says cockily, causing Kyousuke and Gajeel to get more pissed off in turn, especially Kyousuke.

"Damn you asshole." Kyousuke thinks to himself angrily. He started gritting his teeth slightly in anger, Gajeel gripping his fists even tighter. Tetrion started by snapping his fingers, which caused Kyousuke to be blown back by an explosion. Gajeel turned and watched in shock, seeing Kyousuke blown back by the second bomb that never went off. He quickly turned his attention to Tetrion, who came at Gajeel faster than Gajeel himself anticipated, and Gajeel was blasted back with Kyousuke by another explosion. As the two were blasted back, Tetrion quickly went in-between them and grabbed them by their heads, blasting them behind him painfully as they screamed in pain. They quickly got up and on their feet in response and attempted to go after Tetrion, but suddenly they were frozen. Both looked to their feet in shock.

"What the hell?! I can't move!" Gajeel says shocked, trying to move as Kyousuke does the same.

"Damn you!" Kyousuke says hatefully, trying to use all his force to break free as it ends up useless too. Tetrion just stands there with an ecstatic expression, holding his hands out as they charge up in an orange color. He then holds his hands up in the air as if he was going to summon something. Instead, he casts one of the most powerful spells in his agenda.

"Explosion Magic: Tetrius Escalation!" He shouts. Kyousuke and Gajeel freeze once they notice an orange light moving up their legs and up to cover their bodies entirely.

"What the hell is this thing?" Gajeel says shocked, looking at it confused as Kyousuke does too. However, Kyousuke somewhat grasps what he's doing.

"This must be one of his most powerful spells." Kyousuke says in shock, Tetrion grinning with a deadly stare.

"It's time to die Zawisza." Tetrion says surprisingly. Back at Zawisza's location, she suddenly starts getting covered in the same light. It catches everyone's attention as she looks down at her legs horrified.

"No, it can't be! DAMN YOU TETRION!" Zawisza screams in horror, starting to panic as Roxanne tries analyzing it on the spot.

"What is happening to her?" Dayton asks confused, Roxanne trying to figure out. Her heart raced as she thought of the possibility of it being an explosive magic that could kill them instantly.

"I don't know, but we need to move!" Roxanne says in a panic, turning around and attempting to run. However, Tetrion can see what her motives are through the magic.

"Not today girl." He says, snapping his fingers as she freezes. Her eyes widen in shock as she looks down at her feet, wondering what's happened.

"Wha..What is this?! I can't move!" She says panicked. She can't move, and Dayton and Natsu become shocked.

"Roxanne what…" Dayton says as he tries to go after her, only to realize he can't move either, along with Natsu.

"What the?" Dayton says shocked, trying to move as he couldn't either. Natsu became angry, trying to move desperately.

"UUGGGHHH! MOOVE!" Natsu shouts angrily, trying to move but not being able to. At this time, the three subjects are completely covered in the orange stuff, and it condenses, not being visible anymore, which is when it happens.

"Time to die." Tetrion finalizes. The three subjects then explode; the explosions being powerful enough to kill anyone within a radius of 300ft. As Tetrion was also observing the other explosion, he couldn't only hear the deadly screams of Gajeel and Kyousuke, but also those of Roxanne, Dayton, Natsu, Happy, and Zawisza. It was as if he fed on their screams as a source of food. He could see their completely shrunken pupils and their horror on their faces, ones with more fear and others with more pain. It was like he craved their intense pain. At Zawisza's location, it blasted Roxanne, Dayton, Natsu, and Happy into the same direction, blasting through about three-four walls. Zawisza was blasted into the wall behind her, painfully flying through the walls as bones were broken and she went through major concussions. At one point she flew into a pile of debris painfully, coughing up blood in unexplainable amounts of pain as she almost died. She was completely covered in bruises and wounds, looking as if she was the center of an explosion, which she was! Roxanne and Dayton did the same, Dayton hitting the ground face-first and leaving a trail of blood from his face and mouth. Roxanne hit a wall from behind and coughed up blood, falling unconscious along with everyone else in the room too. Blood poured from her head as she was in inexplicit amounts of pain. Happy was the only one safe though, being in Natsu's arms as he flew back completely mind-blown. He was in complete shock, no longer having that confident face as it is instead replaced by one completely devoid of motivation and completely full of fear and failure. His eyes filled Happy with horror. He hit a wall and fell unconscious, having gone through several walls like the other three did. Happy fell unconscious too, despite having dealt with the least damage. Blood dropped as well from them.

Gajeel and Kyousuke on the other-hand flew straight up, both covered in tremendous amounts of bruises and wounds like Zawisza. Levy would've screamed bloody horror had she seen him and Kyousuke in the way they were (mainly Gajeel). Roxanne would've too (mainly both), had she not been included within the explosion also. Both Gajeel and Kyousuke flew in the same direction, being simply rag-dolls as they hit the ground and tumbled across it like broken toys. Blood came from both, being splat down as they helplessly took the damage. Their bodies had streams of blood dripping from their heads and other parts of their bodies downward. Blood was dripping from everyone that was included in the explosion, and it was devastating. Their clothing was also seriously destroyed, leaving some like Gajeel and Natsu shirtless and Kyousuke and Dayton halfway shirtless. Roxanne's sweatshirt was destroyed and Zawisza's clothing was ripped to shreds. Tetrion just stood there and laughed hysterically as if it was the best experience of his life.

* * *

Everyone that wasn't involved in the explosion knew it happened though. Pantherlily and Levy stopped in their tracks when they heard it. They looked around in shock, wondering what it was.

"Oh man, what is that?!" Levy says shocked, Pantherlily standing there conflicted. The explosion seemed so destructive that they both felt horrified at the possibilities.

"I don't know, but we need to find out as soon as possible." Pantherlily states, turning and running as fast as he could to figure out where the explosion came from. "_It better not be Gajeel." _He thinks to himself fearfully, though his instincts told him something else. He continues down as fast as can, carrying Levy in the process. Erza, Gray, Lucy, and Axel hear it too, unaware of who was involved.

"WHAT THE HELL?!" Gray shouts shocked. They were much, much closer, so it was much, much louder and more prominent. They also heard some slight screams. They all were in a state of panic, each of them thinking about someone in particular. Erza took charge instantly.

"We need to go find the location of that explosion RIGHT NOW!" Erza demands in a state of panic. The other three instantly agree and move on to find out where the explosion was, running as fast as they could to get there in time. All their hearts raced; their horror filling them up like a glass of juice and their devastation once they found out about it.

* * *

As all those events ensued, Tetrion heard a voice from a certain someone in his head. He seemed rather pleased about it.

"_Excellent job Tetrion. I should've known only you would've been capable of the job." _The guy says in Tetrion's head as he smiles.

"It was no big deal. Though it was quite fun seeing the power of a wizard from another world." Tetrion explains with a more casual attitude. The guy's tone suddenly changes to a more anxious one.

"_They're dead right?" _The guy says, Tetrion raising his shoulders in response.

"Don't worry, they are. If not, they won't be alive for long." Tetrion says. The guy's tone becomes more relaxed as a result.

"_Good. Make sure they're dead and gone. I don't want to deal with them when my plans go disarray." _The guy says, tuning out as Tetrion grins perversely. Tetrion then walks up to the two Dragon Slayers, both being unconscious as they lie on the ground about 10 feet away from each other. He was greatly amused by their battered state, and the blood on them was like art to him. He walks up to Kyousuke specifically, seeing him unconscious as he smiles even more. However, this suddenly changes when Kyousuke jerks a bit. He suddenly opens his eyes and coughs up a large amount of blood while in pain, leaving Tetrion to be a bit shocked at his survival of the attack. However, this shock only turned into amusement.

"Wow, I'm actually impressed. You aren't dead yet?" Tetrion says out of amusement, only to piss off Kyousuke. Kyousuke looked at him in his dreadful state, starting to shake as he looked at him full of hatred. He was shaking out of pure hate, not of fear. The adrenaline was surging through him like a virus, and he wasn't about to hesitate when it came to killing him. Tetrion then lost his amusement and got annoyed, seeing Kyousuke's resistance and hating his complete lack of fear. Gajeel also became conscious, being on his side. He turned his head and looked over at Kyousuke, who Tetrion was aiming for. "You know what; you're actually pissing me off." Tetrion says annoyed. He grabs Kyousuke by the neck, holding him up in the air and choking him as Kyousuke struggles to breathe. He continued shaking, but it started to dumb down as Kyousuke continued to struggle for air. His lifeless gasps arose as Kyousuke kept struggling, trying to get Tetrion to let go even though it was pointless. Tetrion smiled in response. "Yeah, that's more like it. Keep this up and I'll give you some freedom." Tetrion says amused once more. Gajeel watched it all, and he was really pissed. He forced himself onto his feet, catching Tetrion's attention as Gajeel slowly moved towards him.

"Get…your hands…off of him." Gajeel says darkly, surprising Tetrion as he turns his attention to Gajeel.

"Oh, are you _upset?" _Tetrion taunts, dropping Kyousuke and walking up to Gajeel. Gajeel was walking with his head down, and as he was about to lift it up, Tetrion grabbed it and pushed him to the ground, pinning him down with his foot. Kyousuke was watching Gajeel the whole time, surprised at what was happening. What he just did hit him the most. Gajeel kept thinking about what Tetrion said before.

"_You see! You two already lost. You doubted your own attacks because I'm one of the three most powerful members in this organization." "You did, but I'm fake. It's useless!"_ He remembers. He tried figuring out the meaning behind those sayings, but it was confusing. Despite him thinking of it, his eyes were locked onto Tetrion's, who was starting at him for amusement.

"Alright then, I'll toy with you first. Your iron skin will be a good test for my explosives." Tetrion says, preparing to toy with him. As Kyousuke heard that, sudden emotions of horror filled him up, leaving him to become wide-eyed as a response.

"_These emotions. They're telling me to stop him." _Kyousuke thinks to himself horrified. "_They're telling me to save Gajeel. I have to get up! Gajeel will die if I don't! These emotions?! How has he made me feel this way?! Do I care about him?" _Kyousuke thinks to himself once more. He was completely shocked, but despite this, he tried forcing himself up to save Gajeel; who was still lying there, thinking about those two things Tetrion said over and over again.

"_Doubt? Fake? What the hell does that mean?!" _Gajeel thinks to himself shocked. He tried thinking about it faster as he was about to be killed. "_We doubt our attacks because he's fake?" _Gajeel thinks to himself. He kept thinking, until it suddenly clicked. As strange as he thought this was, he suddenly gained a grin on his face. Tetrion saw this and lost his grin in response, wondering what he was doing. He gave a perplexed look on his face as Gajeel spoke out.

"That damage, it must hurt doesn't it?" Gajeel says, confusing Tetrion and Kyousuke. Kyousuke looked at him and gave him a perplexed look.

"What?" He says confused. "_What the hell? What is he doing?!" _Kyousuke thinks to himself baffled. He was so confused it was just awkward, and despite this Gajeel continued.

"That pain is pretty bad ain't it?" Gajeel says, annoying Tetrion.

"What, are you some kind of idiot or something?"

"Just cause it hurts doesn't mean you can complain." Gajeel says with a grin on his face. He even chuckled! Kyousuke was confused and curious as to what he was doing, and Tetrion was just standing their awkwardly. Gajeel kept that confidence and grin on his face though, which turned out useful in the end. Suddenly, a bunch of cuts and bruises appeared on Tetrion, magically popping out of nowhere as blood spat out from his body. His expression suddenly changes to that of one in pain as he falls over backwards onto the ground, completely appalled by what had just happened to him. Kyousuke sat there in shock, wondering what Gajeel did. He was speechless. Gajeel just chuckled even more in response, getting himself up as Kyousuke watched in awe at his success.

"_What? What did he do?" _Kyousuke thinks to himself shocked. Gajeel stood up, walking slowly towards Kyousuke with that grin on his face. It became less aggressive and became more embracing. It morphed into more of a smile again. He came up to Kyousuke and held out a hand to Kyousuke, which Kyousuke looked at with shock. He looked up at Gajeel who still had that smile on his face. He chuckled a bit, Kyousuke feeling shocked on the inside. He let out a breath as he closed his eyes and grabbed Gajeel's hand, in which Gajeel helped Kyousuke up. Kyousuke got up and managed to stand on his feet with the strength he had. Tetrion also tried getting up, but it was much more difficult for him due to his unhealthy state. Kyousuke gave Gajeel a surprised look, despite being in a much roughed up state. "What happened?" Kyousuke simply asks. Gajeel turned and looked at Tetrion, explaining what happened while he did so.

"Our attacks weren't working because we were too convinced that our attacks were useless. You got that?" Gajeel says, looking at Kyousuke with his serious face. Kyousuke thought about it a bit, not getting it right away. It took him a minute, but he then realized it was _that_ type of magic. He expressed realization and relief upon figuring out what it really was.

"Oh, I see. That's it." Kyousuke says, Gajeel smiling in response. "It's that type of magic is it? The Fake Reality Magic: a type of magic in which the user will render the attacks of the opponent useless and _'fake'_ and in turn use it against them due to their doubt and wonder as to which if their attacks would work or not. _You_ simply stopped him by being confident enough in your own attacks to make them the _'reality'_." Kyousuke explains while impressed. He was both impressed and surprised at the same time. "Wow." Kyousuke says astonished. He couldn't believe that he didn't recognize that right away, despite already knowing about the magic itself. Tetrion managed to stand up and give the two a deadly stare, as if he was about to kill them.

"Damn you. I'm gonna kill you for this! Cut you up to pieces and throw you in the burner, melt you so I can make some tools worth a living!" Tetrion says, mainly pissed off at Gajeel. Gajeel didn't care for his insults though; his iron wasn't any average iron here. Kyousuke simply stared into him with complete confidence in his own attacks against him, causing more scars and bruises to appear as Tetrion screams in pain. "AAGGH! Fuck you bastard!" He says angrily, standing there in pain as Gajeel and Kyousuke prepare to take him out. They were done with his crap.

"Let's take out this chump and get it over with." Gajeel says, packing his fists together and looking at Kyousuke with a smile on his face. Kyousuke couldn't help but think about the kindness Gajeel has delivered to him personally, so Kyousuke closed his eyes and smiled in response; something that made Gajeel happy himself. After that they both had set their eyes on Tetrion, who was starting to panic.

"Hey, wait a minute! What do you think you're doing?!" Tetrion says shocked. Kyousuke and Gajeel couldn't do much, but it would be enough to stop him. Kyousuke got behind Gajeel and put his hands on his right arm, to which they were preparing to do something different.

"You ready?" Kyousuke asks, to which Gajeel replies with a confident, "Yeah." Kyousuke then charges up his arm and they prepare the attack, using it instantly once it's ready.

"Electric Iron Dragon's Club!' They shout together. Suddenly, Gajeel's Iron Dragon's Club appears, but this time it's surrounded in electricity. As unusual this would be to kill Tetrion, it would work. Tetrion started screaming for his life before he was hit.

"I just wanted to PLAY SOME MORE FAKE DOUBT!" Tetrion screams before being hit by the electric, iron club. He screamed out in immense pain before exploding to pieces in one of his own explosions. His existence was erased instantly and he was no longer a D-Raided member, something that _guy _he was talking to wouldn't be so happy about. As the two watched him die, they started breathing heavily as they regained their own energy. Kyousuke expressed extreme relief at how he was able to kill Tetrion. It wasn't time for them to take a break though. They needed to continue.

"Since he's dead, we should recover much faster since for some reason that's how this 'Fake Reality' magic works." Kyousuke explains, Gajeel being relieved. These events would shape their relationship more than expected. There is more to be seen though; the ending of the D-Raided has begun.


	22. Chapter 22: New Bonds Realized

Chapter 22: New Bonds Realized

Kyousuke and Gajeel stood there, recovering from the brutal attacks that Tetrion delivered after he was killed. They had their hands on their knees as they took heavy breaths in order to regenerate their energy faster. Some of their wounds had already started healing due to the sped up regenerative process triggered by Tetrion's death, which was going to help them get a move on and defeat the D-Raided even faster. They gained enough strength to move normally by now, but some heavy fighting was going to have to wait for them. Kyousuke was elated at the thought of having gotten revenge, but he wanted to get out of this madness room.

"Since that's settled, we need to get out of here." Kyousuke suggests, holding a hand on his left arm as Gajeel nods in response. The two of them turn around to see a white portal behind them; the center of the portal filled with a radial rainbow of colors washed in. "That's probably the way out of this stupid room." Kyousuke says relieved.

"Looks like it." Gajeel says in response as the two walked up to the portal, standing right in-front of it and looking straight into it. It still looked like a white circle with a radial rainbow washed in the center. Gajeel was about to walk in until Kyousuke stopped him.

"Wait a minute," Kyousuke says, stopping Gajeel as he turns and looks at him, "This portal may not send us to the same destination."

"So we're gonna split up again huh?" Gajeel says with a serious tone. Kyousuke just shrugged his shoulders in response.

"Yep. Weird how this place works, isn't it?" Kyousuke says slightly annoyed. He turned his eyes away and looked down at the ground or something, having his arms crossed as he stood there thinking about it. Gajeel just stood there and watched him. At one point, Gajeel came up and put a hand behind Kyousuke's back, gaining a grin on his face as Kyousuke looked up at him in surprise.

"Don't be ridiculous," Gajeel says, surprising Kyousuke, "We ain't losing each other that easily."

"What are you say…" Kyousuke says in response before being pushed into the portal by Gajeel. Kyousuke's image suddenly rippled away like water as he vanished into the portal. Gajeel just chuckled after doing so, knowing that Kyousuke wouldn't run off that easily, and that he wasn't stupid enough to get lost in this building so easily. With that, Gajeel jumped into the portal too, his image rippling away like water as he vanishes into the portal.

* * *

In another room in the base, a white portal appears in the air, shooting out Kyousuke as he falls down onto the ground; having one knee up and one foot on the ground.

"_Finally I got out of that room." _Kyousuke thinks to himself relieved. He got up, standing on his feet as he looked around and noticed he was in another hallway of the D-Raided base. It was dark with red plating all over the room. It had a diamond pattern onto it that was eventually cut off by a thin white border. Looking around, he was annoyed that he fell into this place, but just continued down the hallway anyways. "And I was right. I'll have to find him." Kyousuke says to himself. He continues through the hallway, running into a section that splits left and right. He takes the left, going down and then taking a right as the floor is slanted upward. As Kyousuke continues through the base, he continuously thinks about the fight that had just happened, and the actions done. "_That fight; I had never expected Tetrion to be that powerful, despite his durability just being fake." _He thinks to himself. He was aggravated by his weakness against him, even though he won. It really sunk into him, but this emotion soon morphed into remorse when he thought about what happened after the Tetris Escalation. "_But then Gajeel…" _He thought. It weighed heavy on him, and he had to stop. He slowed down, eventually coming to a stop as he just stood there, thinking about the things that happened between him and Gajeel.

"_Get…your hands…off of him."_ He remembered. Those words; the way Gajeel said them. The dark voice he had that brought out his feelings for him.

"He wanted to save me." Kyousuke says to himself shocked.

The memories with Gajeel raced through his head, remembering to when they first met.

"_You know, we're totally alike!" _Kyousuke remembers Gajeel say. The face he had when he said it; that unexpected boom in the relationship.

Later on too, when they decided to go to the hot-springs and relax a bit: _"So, what do you think of our world?" _

"_The people here are ridiculous and your principle's a whack-job."_ Gajeel straightforwardly says. Kyousuke couldn't help but laugh a bit at his response…

"_So, out of curiosity, what do you think of me?" _

"_You're not bad." _Gajeel tells Kyousuke with a more friendly tone. Their relationship is now increasing.

Later on after Kyousuke's hatred for the D-Raided rose once again: _"What's the point?"_ Gajeel says, catching Kyousuke's attention. _"Getting so angry over something like that is a waste." _

"_And you know what it's like?" _

"_Yeah I do, and I learned my lesson a long time ago." _Gajeel says seriously. Kyousuke looked at him surprised…

"_Do you want me to go to this?" _

"_Yeah, and I'm coming with you."_ Gajeel states without question.

"_Really?"_ Kyousuke said confused. _"You're…coming with me?" _

"_Yeah, I'm coming whether you like it or not."_ Gajeel said. His insistence on helping him out, not giving a crap what Kyousuke thought.

The next day, which was the day of the party. This was after Gajeel had saved him from the massive explosion at the staircase from the D-Raided invasion: _"This is ridiculous! Let go of me!" _Kyousuke shouted, trying to break free once more.

"_Quit whining!"_ Gajeel said angrily. He got even more annoyed as Kyousuke started to pry his fingers off_…_

"_You're gonna go after the D-Raided?"_ Gajeel asks calmly. _"You're a moron." _

"_What?!" _Kyousuke says angrily.

"_Go after them and you'll just get yourself killed." _

"_Are you saying that I'm weak?!" _

"_NO, now sit DOWN!"…_

"_Hey, come on now."_ Gajeel says calmly, _"you're gonna get yourself killed whether you like it or not, so that's why I'm coming with you." _

"_Fine then."_ Kyousuke says quietly, not wanting to talk about it anymore.

Later on that night: _"I'll be right back."_ Kyousuke says. Gajeel, however, grabbed his wrist and refused to let go. He pulled Kyousuke onto the ground literally right next to him, and he relaxed his arm around Kyousuke.

"_Don't be ridiculous. We're watching this together."_ Gajeel says calmly. A grin came across his face as Kyousuke looked up and noticed it. It was more of a lovely smile actually.

The time when they were walking to the area they trained in: _"Hey Gajeel."_

"_Yeah, what is it?"_

"_Why do you want to help me out with this mission?"_

"_Huh? What do you mean why?" _

"_I'm just curious. Why do you want to help me out with stopping the D-Raided anyway?" _

"_You ain't gonna get anywhere the way you are. Face it, you're gonna need my help whether you like it or not."_

"_I know that's not the answer. Why doesn't he just tell me?" _Kyousuke thinks to himself calmly.

After their first training session: _"So Gajeel, what do you think of him?" _Pantherlily asks.

"_He's got guts. He ain't nowhere near my level but he's no pushover either."_ Gajeel says with a smile on his face.

Everything thing he's done for Kyousuke up till now, his last being his most effective and caring.

"_Get…your hands…off of him."_ He remembered. _"Get…your hands…off of him."_ _"Get…your hands…off of him."_ It went through Kyousuke like a sword; a sword meant to cut that rope that was binding you apart so you can be set free; that rope surrounding his emotions. It repeated in his head constantly; he couldn't stop thinking about it. He clenched his fist really tight, gritting his teeth in the process. He angrily punched the wall, making a small dent in it as he just held it there, unable to contain it anymore. He started getting _really _emotional.

"Why does he care so much for me?!" Kyousuke says upsettingly. Tears started pouring down his face as he pulled a hand up and covered his face. The tears came up; he was crying. They dripped and hit the floor as he stood there crying, just crying. He couldn't take it anymore; it was too much for him. He HATED his life, he HATED the people that always bothered him, and he HATED the D-Raided; the group that made his existence utterly pointless. He wanted to die; he planned on killing himself and ending it all once this entire trip was over, but now he can't.

He can't do that anymore. He can't because Gajeel won't let him do it. It's too much for him. Do you know angry he would be because Kyousuke gave up? Gajeel destroyed that barrier the D-Raided put on him and instead stuck to it himself. Kyousuke hated when people tried to infiltrate him. Gajeel came to him and pulled him out of his hate. His instincts said he wanted Gajeel.

"Gajeel! What are you doing to me?! What do you want from ME?!" Kyousuke shouted in anger. "I DON'T HAVE ANYTHING! I'M ALREADY DEAD! WHY ARE YOU SO DESPERATE TO HELP ME!?" Kyousuke screamed. He stood there and screamed, eventually falling to his knees, onto his hands and crying in tremendous amounts of pain. He was shaking uncontrollably, unable to understand it all. He still thought Gajeel didn't understand the pain Kyousuke went through. He couldn't take it anymore; he was sick and tired of pushing everyone away and he was sick and tired of being controlled. As the tears poured, he pushed himself up onto his feet, standing up strong. He stopped the tears and brought in a new emotion. This wasn't hatred, but this was desperation. He gripped his fists tightly. "Gajeel," Kyousuke says in a darker tone, "I will find you, and I find out your purpose in doing this to me." He then jumped straight off, sprinting straight down the hallway as he transformed into a bolt of electricity; surging through the halls. "_Nothing's going to stop me from finding you…Gajeel."_

* * *

On the other-hand, Pantherlily was still carrying Levy as he ran through the halls to find the location of the explosion. He was in the upper area of the base, running on silver, metal floors that covered the entirety of the hallway. As they ran, they suddenly stopped upon seeing a white portal pop up in-front of them, both looking at it confused.

"What the heck?" Pantherlily says surprised.

"It must be some kind of portal." Levy says, jumping out of Pantherlily's arms onto the ground. She slowly started walking to it, wondering what it is.

"Be careful Levy, it may be…" Pantherlily says before his attention is driven away. Suddenly, Gajeel comes through the portal, falling down onto the ground as he lands on a foot, and then lands on both knees. Pantherlily and Levy jump in shock.

"Gajeel!" They both shout, running up to him as he pushes himself up effortlessly. "Are you okay?!" Levy says concerned, putting a hand on Gajeel as he gets up.

"Quit you're worrying, I'm fine." Gajeel says with a serious tone. He stood up and brushed his pants off, being shirtless due to the explosion that he went through. Pantherlily looked at him confused.

"Gajeel, what the hell was going on?" Pantherlily asks with a concerned tone. Gajeel gave him a serious look before explaining as he went on to stretch out his muscles.

"This guy thought he could blow us up, too bad he ain't here anymore." Gajeel says, chuckling as Pantherlily and Levy question him.

"Hold on a minute; there was someone with you?" Pantherlily brings up as Gajeel stretches his arms by moving them in circles.

"Yeah, it was Kyousuke." Gajeel says, _referring to him by name_. He looked behind him as if he was ready to go after him and find out where he was.

"Where is he now?" Pantherlily questions, just as Gajeel gets ready to go.

"We got split up because of this damn portal." Gajeel explains. He finishes stretching, turns around, and prepares to head that way. "Something ain't right here. You two get outta here; I'm gonna go find him." Gajeel quickly orders. He then heads down that direction, Pantherlily being left puzzled as Gajeel goes on.

"Wait a minute Gajeel!" Levy shouts, causing Gajeel to stop running. He stood there and listened to her without moving a single muscle. "Please be careful, okay?" Levy says concerned. She really did worry about him, hoping he really was okay after that explosion. Of course he looked much better now, having way less bruises and scars and only little blood spots. He stood there and grinned, turning around and giving her thumbs up.

"Don't be ridiculous, shrimp." He says in a positive attitude, turning around right after and heading down the hallway. Levy was left annoyed by the 'shrimp' comment.

"Stupid Gajeel." She says annoyed. Pantherlily gets her to move with him as they both retrace their steps. Pantherlily couldn't help but worry over Gajeel's well-being, fearing something may happen to him that may be fatal.

"I hope he'll be alright." Pantherlily says out-loud, only for Levy to reassure him.

"Don't worry, he'll be alright. He's a metal-head you know." Levy says while winking as Pantherlily sees her confidence in him. He just smiles in response.

"Right." He simply states, moving on as they prepare to meet up with everyone else.

* * *

On the other-hand, Roxanne and the others were still in a devastating state; being heavily damaged by that explosion. Roxanne was still unconscious, and she was in a dream apparently. She was in a black space, looking around in confusion as to where she was.

"What is this place? Where am I?" She says perplexed. As she looks around, she suddenly hears a clank sound, suddenly turning behind her and seeing a metal door slightly open. She looks at it confused, walking up to it with a defensive approach as she wonders what's behind the door. "This door; where does it lead?" She says to herself confused. She grabs the metal door knob and pulls it open slowly, revealing a large room with a bunch of TVs on the inside of it. Looking around and noticing nothing harmful inside, she walks in and the door shuts behind her, scaring her as she turns around in shock. Breathing heavily, she turns forward and walks through the room, noticing all these yellow TVs on a static screen playing white noise. "This room looks disgusting." Roxanne says disgusted, noticing the unclean floors with a blue-white tile pattern and gross stains on the walls. They were green and brown and it smelled horrible. As she continues, she sees a screen with a blue background and one button that says 'PLAY'. "What is this?" Roxanne says intrigued. All it had was a play button, which kind of annoyed her. She also wondered what happens when she presses play. "If I press play, will I die?" She says to herself perplexed. As much as that fear would be, she decided to take the chance. She touched the play button and the screen went black, going on to display a series of videos of strange things. Roxanne stood there and watched every single bit of it, wondering what it was.

Someone was running with these other people, desperately running for their lives to escape something.

"We have to go immediately!" An older man says next to this someone. They looked around and there were three other people with them, a younger man that looked like an older brother, an older woman and another older woman. They ran through and managed to get out of the space that they were in, but they found themselves in a bad situation with someone who made Roxanne feel horribly conflicted.

"What the hell?!" Roxanne says in shock. The guy's hair was purple, but it was shaped exactly like Dayton's and his face also closely resembled Dayton. "That guy; he looks so much like Dayton. Why the hell does he look so much like Dayton?!" Roxanne says in shock. The guy fired a blast at the older man, which was a purple orb that flew into the guy. He flew up in the air as someone shouted out for him.

"NO! Daddy!" She shouts, watching as the orb exploded and the guy was killed. He exploded and vanished without a trace, leaving that someone to just stand there in horror as he was dead. She started screaming in terror as blood dropped. "DADDY!" She screamed, making the guy angry with her.

"Shut up ZAWISZA!" The guy says, firing an orb into her as she flies into the wall behind her, immobilizing her. Roxanne watched in shock.

"No way, that's Zawisza?!" Roxanne says in shock. Her memory was spot on. It was Zawisza as a young child. She watched in shock as she looked at everyone else she knew being hit by the orbs.

"NO! Leave them alone! Please! Brother NO!" She screams as her brother explodes to pieces. "NO Mommy NO! AUNTIE PLEASE!" She screams, seeing her aunt last as she explodes into nothing. She heard their screams and it tore her to pieces. The blood just poured and some of it fell onto her, and Roxanne was horrified.

"Oh my god!" Roxanne says horrified, covering her mouth as she gasps. The worse part was that all that was left of them was blood falling to the ground. Zawisza was there crying in pain, wanting her family to come back.

"Daddy! Please come back! Mommy, Auntie! Brother! Help me! I'm scared!" She shouts as she cries. The guy came up to her and seemed really irritated with her.

"Shut up brat!" He shouts angrily, taking a hand and slapping her across the face really hard. He then came back and back-handed her again, leaving two large swollen spots on her cheeks. Roxanne felt a small source of anger build up inside her. To her; this was absolutely unacceptable. The guy then grabbed the girl by her hair; ignoring the painful screams she cried as he tossed her against the wall. She hit it and slid to the ground, still crying tremendously as she couldn't take it anymore. She curled up into a ball for protection, just wanting to be safe and away from the guy that was torturing her. He walked up to her, being this huge evil statue to her, and threatened her to get up.

"Get up." He says, seeing the girl just sit there scared to death. Annoyed, he made an orb explode right next to her, causing her to jump in fear as she looked at him completely scared. She was trembling; her legs shaking uncontrollably and her pupils so shrunken it was like she was dead. "Get up NOW!" The guy yells, scaring her even more. Just to avoid the horror this guy was going to give her, she forced herself up onto her legs slowly, despite the guy's impatience. She was breathing heavily and she was so scared that she was willing to do whatever he wanted so she wouldn't be scared anymore.

"That's it. Good girl." The guy says in a serious tone. He explained something to her, despite her terrorized state. "Now your family is dead, girl. You don't have a reason to live anymore, do you?" The guy says. Roxanne was burning with hatred for this guy; the way he treated her made her bitter to the core. She clenched her fists extremely tight, fiercely staring at the screen as the guy went on with his dreadful speech. "I'm your family now. I'll be your king, and you'll be my slave, GOT THAT?!" He yells in her face. Zawisza was just standing there scared to death, jumping when he yells at her. She uses the little strength she had to pronounce those words that would make this guy so content with her.

"Yes…sir." She says in complete fear. Her voice was so weak that she couldn't even pronounce it properly. The guy still had that serious, dull expression on his face, simply saying, "Good" and telling her to follow her into the other room. He moved real fast, and she walked real slowly (due to her being horrified) as she walked into an elevator. It then moved up and right at that moment the video ended, going back to the 'PLAY' screen with the button being greyed out. Roxanne slammed her fist on the table.

"Damn that asshole!" Roxanne says hatefully. She had no respect for him, and she was totally intent on taking him out once she saw him. Roxanne, filled with fury, turned once she heard another door open as curiousity led her to check that out. She walked over and opened the door, being less cautious due to her arising anger. Inside the door she saw a giant, light-green room. She walked into it, being curious as she saw someone sitting there in a ball. It looked like Zawisza to Roxanne. She walked up real close to her and said something. "Zawisza, is that you?" She asks calmly. The girl doesn't move, and so Roxanne moves in a little bit closer. Suddenly, the girl's head shifts and looks straight at Roxanne, and one side of her is normal, but her left side looks like that of a robot devoid of emotion.

She suddenly wakes up, breathing heavily as she also hears screaming coming from the current Zawisza.

"AAAAAGGGHHGH, IT BURNS! FUCK YOU TETRION! YOU BASTARD! AAGGAHGH SHIT! IT BURNS! IT BURNS!" Zawisza screams out in pain. Roxanne could hear her, and she remembered everything in her dream. It was as clear as water. She had to help her; her intuition told her. She forced herself up, pushing with all her might as a sudden feeling of pain shot through her arm.

"Ah crap, my arm!" She says, holding herself up as she holds her arm in pain. She's breathing heavily, recovering from the explosion as she pushed herself up to go see Zawisza. Since she was also recovering faster than usual, she was able to start walking a bit faster when she got up. Natsu also woke up, rubbing head in pain as he looked around and saw Roxanne heading towards Zawisza.

"Roxanne!" Natsu shouts, catching her attention as she turns to him surprised.

"Natsu! You're awake!"

"Stay away from her! She's gonna try to kill you!" Natsu says out of fear of her safety. Natsu isn't normally like this, but perhaps the explosion messed him up temporarily. Roxanne just batted an eye and looked back at Zawisza. She chuckled a bit.

"Don't worry Natsu; I've got this." She says confidently. Natsu just stays put and watches her as Roxanne requips a sword into her hand, walking up to Zawisza as she catches her attention. Zawisza shoots a deadly glare at her.

"What do you think you're doing girl?!" She shouts angrily. Roxanne ignored this, walking up to her anyway as she feared that she was going to be killed. Roxanne stood right in-front of her, holding the sword in one hand as Zawisza lied there helplessly. She came to the conclusion that Roxanne was going to kill her, but didn't do anything to prevent such. "If you're going to kill me, just do it! Kill me and be gone with it! I don't care anymore, even if your magic is disgusting you can still kill me with it." Zawisza says. She was giving up her life. Roxanne just stood there holding the sword and looking her straight in the eyes. Natsu was worried that she was going to kill her just like that. Roxanne just chuckled, throwing her sword down as she started brushing off the debris from her clothing.

"Come on now, be realistic here." Roxanne says, completely shocking Zawisza. She was completely baffled by what she just did. Roxanne got down and close to her, so she could talk to her personally. "Listen, I know what this organization did to you; the torture, your family's death, the guy with the purple hair..."

"HOW DO YOU KNOW THAT?!" Zawisza yells angrily, feeling infiltrated and disgusted by such. Roxanne simply answered the question with a calm attitude.

"You were just as affected by the madness as I was, all I had to do was enter your brain while you were unconscious and I was able to see all your memories and emotions." Roxanne explains, shocking Zawisza even more. She was horrified at how Roxanne figured out all this information about her, but Roxanne continued on talking to her anyways. "You're so upset and torn apart that you're not even human anymore." Roxanne explains. Zawisza started to gain a more surprised expression; less horrified and more taken-aback. She was surprised at Roxanne's more compassionate attitude towards her. "You also refuse to have any compassion for anyone because you're afraid they might use you like a tool." Roxanne explains. Zawisza was in shock, not expecting anything like that from her.

"_She figured this out so easily. It's like she knows me like the back of her hand!" _Zawisza thinks to herself in shock. She then gains a more annoyed expression and looks away from Roxanne. "Yeah, like you can help me out with my issues." Zawisza says sarcastically. Roxanne dismissed this comment and held out a hand to Zawisza.

"Hey Zawisza," She says in a compassionate tone, shocking Zawisza as she turns to Roxanne surprised, "will you be my friend?" Zawisza lied there in shock, looking at her as if she was an entirely different person. Natsu, watching from behind, just smiled in response. He was happy that she was able to help someone out that she cared for. Roxanne just smiled happily, causing Zawisza much surprise. She started to tear up, unable to understand why she wants to help her out.

"You want me…as a friend?" Zawisza says in shock, Roxanne nodding in response. She started crying, putting her hands on her face as she couldn't control the tears anymore. Roxanne looked at her compassionately as Zawisza cried tears that meant happiness.

"I never thought there were people out there that actually cared about me!" Zawisza says, breaking down into tears as she couldn't help but cry over it. Dayton also wakes up, pushing himself up as he stretches out his back muscles, wondering what's going on.

"Hey Natsu, what's happening?" He asks, hearing crying at the same time. He turns and sees Roxanne with Zawisza as she's crying, and begins to wonder what's going on. "Why is she crying? Did Roxanne touch her or something?" Dayton asks out of confusion, only to piss off Roxanne.

"Dayton!" She shouts angrily, requiping a kunai and throwing it directly at his head. He just barely dodged it as it flew right into the wall behind him and stuck into there. He started pleading out of fear.

"Okay Roxanne, I'm sorry! Please don't throw kunai knives at me again!" Dayton pleads as Roxanne rolls her eyes.

"Yeah whatever." She just says. Zawisza was still crying, and Roxanne just smiled, as did the other three (including Happy as he just woke up too). Roxanne still felt horribly conflicted though. Why did that guy closely resemble Dayton so much? It sunk in her like an anchor, and she didn't want it to ruin her relationship with Dayton.

They didn't die! However, it's time to start putting an end to this business. The D-Raided is going down!


	23. Chapter 23: You're Just Like Natsu

Chapter 23: You're Just Like Natsu

Erza, Gray, Lucy and Axel were running through the base, still trying to figure out the place of that explosion that had occurred. They continued on out of the scientific area of the base and more so onto the middle section of the base, getting closer to what they saw as a messed up wall.

"What is with this place?" Lucy says confused, noticing dents coming towards them from the walls. They protruded outward, and Erza came to the conclusion that because of this, the explosion must've happened inside these walls. She stopped, making everyone else stop as she observed the walls around her.

"_These dents are protruding towards us, which means that the explosion we heard must've been inside of these walls." _Erza thinks to herself, requipping into her Black Wing Armor, "_We'll just have to break through the wall in order to get through." _She walks up to the wall; particularly a part with a large dent protruding towards her, and she gets ready to blast it apart.

"What do you plan on doing?" Axel asks confused as Erza continues on without replying. She uses the Moon Flash technique and blows apart the wall, sending pieces flying in Roxanne's direction as they just fly into the wall and fall to the ground. Natsu and Dayton are caught off guard by the wall being blown up and look at it with surprise. The whole group instantly noticed the destruction that was inside of the room, and they all rushed in to figure out what happened. Lucy came in last and saw Natsu there, immediately rushing over to him in order to help him out.

"Natsu!" She shouts, catching his attention as he smiles in response. Lucy runs over and helps him up. "What on earth happened here?" She asks concerned, helping him up as he shakes his head and stretches.

"That girl over there," Natsu says, pointing at Zawisza who trying to not cry anymore, "she somehow exploded."

"Exploded?!" Lucy says surprised. "Like that's normal."

"Who cares? We made it alive!" Natsu says optimistically, to which Lucy agrees with. Dayton was up and stretching, acting like it was just scene or something.

"Oh man, it was like we almost died."

"We did _almost die_ you idiot!" Roxanne says annoyed, just as Dayton remembers.

"Oh yeah, I forgot!" He says, stretching out.

"What do you mean you _forgot; _the explosion just happened minutes ago!" Roxanne says annoyed, just as Dayton continues stretching without a word. He finishes stretching and is ready to get a move on again.

"Alright, it's time to beat these guys up for a change!" Dayton says ready to go. Natsu was also getting fired up, but that was not so good for them because everyone else needed to figure out what was even going on in the first place. Erza came up to Roxanne and kneeled down next to her, talking with her specifically on what happened.

"So then, an explosion happened here?" Erza says surprised, catching Roxanne's attention as she goes on to explain.

"It was a pretty bad one too. Zawisza here suddenly started turning orange and we suddenly couldn't move." Roxanne explains, surprising Erza.

"Do you think she was controlling you when she exploded?"

"That would've been impossible." Zawisza replies, pushing herself up as her tears are no longer there as she explains. "Someone else made me explode." Zawisza says, surprising the two as they look at her shocked.

"Wait, you had no control over the explosion?!" Roxanne says shocked.

"No, that's why I was screaming. It was that Tetrion that made me explode, and he also froze you and those other two idiots." Zawisza explains with a calmer attitude. Erza turns around and sees Natsu and Dayton chatting with each other again, going on about how they're going to go beat up the rest of the D-Raided and stuff. Dayton was also talking with Axel and Gray as the two reunite and meet up for the first time respectively.

"_This guy controlled them? How powerful are some of these members?" _Erza thinks to herself shocked, looking back at Zawisza to talk about it more. "Tell me, where do you think this Tetrion is?" She asks with a serious tone. Zawisza releases a sigh before explaining.

"I don't know, but I think he's dead." Zawisza says, surprising the two again.

"Dead?!" They say in sync. "What makes you think that?"

"That explosion would've killed us instantly. Our recovery speed from that explosion is much faster than normal terms!" Zawisza explains, just as Roxanne starts to catch on and realize it. "Think about it. We would've never recovered this fast if it was an actual bomb. If he was alive it would be the same situation is if it was a bomb, but because he's dead, our regenerative speed has sped up."

"If that's the case, who do you think killed him?" Roxanne asks shocked, just as Zawisza gets annoyed.

"How do you think I'm supposed to know?!" She says irritated. Both Erza and Roxanne are surprised by this statement, just as Zawisza realizes what she just did. She suddenly gains a more guilty expression on her face and turns away.

"I'm sorry, I'm just frustrated." She says quickly, not wanting to be known as some rude person. Roxanne immediately responds.

"Don't apologize! We know you're frustrated. Just keep telling us what you know." Roxanne says, Erza looking at her with a slight smile on her face. Zawisza looked at her initially surprised, but then gained a calmer expression on her face as she began explaining.

"Okay then. I don't know who, but it's possible that he may have been killed by that Kyousuke that was with you guys." She explains. This sent sudden shock through Roxanne, wondering why Kyousuke was brought into the matter. The response made her really uneasy.

"_What…Kyousuke?! What the hell?!" _Roxanne thinks to herself shocked. Erza was also shocked, but it wasn't as much. "How do you know about Kyousuke?!" Roxanne says shocked, desperately wanting an answer. Zawisza went straight to the point.

"I don't know him, but I know he was once involved with the D-Raided." Zawisza says straightforwardly. Both Erza and Roxanne widened their eyes in shock, never expecting such a response.

"What?! Kyousuke was involved with the D-Raided?!" Erza says out-loud, making it apparent enough so that Dayton could hear. Dayton heard it and his heart just stopped. His eyes widened, and he was completely disturbed.

"_Kyousuke was involved with the D-Raided?!" _He thought to himself shocked. He stood there completely paralyzed by the shock that went through him. Natsu, Lucy, Gray, and Axel saw him, and suddenly became concerned.

"Hey, are you alright?" Natsu asks concerned, just as Dayton stands there shocked.

"_It can't be." _He thinks to himself overwhelmed. He remembers his very first fight with him, in the cave. His madness, the psychotic expression, his hatred that he expressed for the D-Raided, and he was once part of it all this time! He just couldn't take it. I was too much. He instantly ran from the group and headed straight for Zawisza, looking rather pissed off than usual. "_Damn that bastard. Why didn't he ever tell me about it?!" _Dayton thinks to himself angrily. He ran and pushed Erza and Roxanne away, heading straight for Zawisza as he grabs her by her clothing and gets up real close to her. She was sort of freaked out, but Dayton wasn't messing around. He needed answers, and he was dead serious.

"Tell me! What did that bastard do when he was here!?" Dayton says angrily, looking at Zawisza straight through the eyes. Erza and Roxanne's attentions were forced on Dayton, and Roxanne felt more shock at seeing Dayton's reaction than anything.

"Dayton!" Roxanne says shocked, just as everyone else runs and gathers around, being shocked at Dayton's response. Roxanne stood up and got upset at Dayton. "What are you doing?!" She says upset. "How is she supposed to have the answers?!"

"Roxanne, this isn't fun and games anymore. This is Kyousuke we're talking about here!" Dayton says angrily. Erza got up and decided to take control of the situation herself.

"Even so, what good is it going to do by yelling at someone over something she doesn't even understand?!" Erza explains in a serious tone. Dayton got more upset, but he knew she was right, and he let go of Zawisza's clothing. He stood up and clenched his fists, everyone looking at him concerned. Natsu was most concerned, having a rather serious look on his face too.

"It's just…not something you would expect." Dayton says, trying to contain his anger. "Just imagine if it was Gajeel! How am I supposed to help someone I care about when he doesn't even want to help himself?!" Dayton says upsettingly, shocking mostly everyone except for Natsu, Gray and Axel. Roxanne knew about it too and started to get a depressed expression on her face. Dayton kept going on about it. "I've always tried to help him but he would always push me away." Dayton explains, remembering a past time when he met up with him on a cliff-side.

* * *

It was after the fight in the cave, and Dayton was determined to help him out. Kyousuke had a rather serious expression on his face; Dayton as well. Kyousuke realized he was there, and he was rather irritated.

"What do you want?" Kyousuke says in a serious tone, Dayton looking at him with the same serious expression.

"Look, Roxanne just wants to help you." Dayton explains, Kyousuke not moving a muscle. "We don't just sit here trying to annoy you."

"If that's the case, you're failing because I'm annoyed." Kyousuke says with a darker tone. Dayton only got aggravated by that comment, and continued on.

"You know, you don't have to be so stuck up about your problems!" Dayton says, annoying Kyousuke as he scoffs and turns away. "We all have them. Friends are supposed to help each other and that's what I'm here for! That's what Roxanne is trying to do!" Dayton argues, trying to convince Kyousuke to open up to him. However, Kyousuke just gets up and walks right by, stopping right behind Dayton and talking in a dark voice.

"Don't act like you know me. If you really did care, you would just _back off_." Kyousuke says, shocking Dayton. Dayton just got angrier as Kyousuke continued to insult him regardless of what Dayton felt. "If there was anyone who did understand my pain, it would be someone like me, and you could never fit that definition. The likely hood of that happening is zero." Kyousuke explains, walking off and vanishing from site. Dayton just stood there, angry and upset. He looked emotionless; he had no idea of what to do. Kyousuke only hated them despite what they wanted to do to help him.

* * *

Returning to reality, Dayton had the same expression on his face. He kept going on about it.

"I may have hated him, and he may hate me, but he's still a part of us!" Dayton says upsettingly, everyone listening with a serious expression. "Honestly, when you guys got here, I saw him open up more to Gajeel." Dayton explains, surprising everyone. Roxanne looked at him the most surprised, remembering how he continuously cared and got closer to him, regardless of the restrictions. The way Gajeel told her about it changed her opinion of him entirely. Dayton continued on. "I don't know how Gajeel did it, but Kyousuke seemed more of a person than an emotion then." Dayton said, getting real deep on the subject. "I don't know anything about Gajeel, but I'm sure Gajeel went through some heavy stuff too, just like we all have." Dayton explains, suddenly changing his tone as he becomes more confident in his words. Zawisza watched the whole time and was completely surprised. Dayton started getting tied up in his words when he tried talking again. "I just…" He says, Erza walking up to him and hugging him as if he was Natsu.

"It's okay Dayton, we understand." She says, surprising Dayton as he stands there in surprise. "You're just like Natsu; caring for your friends and doing whatever it takes to keep everyone together." Erza explains, Dayton still being surprised as Natsu just smiles. Erza continues on, now moving away and holding his hands instead. "You're already a member of Fairy Tail." Erza says, surprising Dayton the most as he just looks around and sees everyone smiling, with the exception of Roxanne and Zawisza, who were just shocked. Dayton didn't really know what Fairy Tail was, but still was surprised that someone would acknowledge him in such a way.

"Do…do you really mean that?" Dayton says shocked, just as Natsu comes up and puts a hand on his shoulder.

"Yeah man!" Natsu says enthusiastically, surprising Dayton. "When you're a member of Fairy Tail, everyone is family. That's all there is too it!" Natsu says, smiling after saying it. Dayton was just shocked, never expecting such a place to exist. He cared for the people at his school, but he wasn't that close to them. To him; they were just other people that walked on the face of the planet.

"_A place like that actually does exist." _Dayton thinks to himself happily. He gained a smile on his face, all cheered up now. On the inside, he felt glad that he found a place that he always wanted to be a part of. The only thing is though; he needs to get everyone else that's a part of this group involved too.

"If that's so, then let's go get everyone else because they're family too!" Dayton says, putting a fist up as everyone else does too, except for Axel, Roxanne and Zawisza. They were just surprised. The Fairy Tail guild was reforming in this world! Roxanne just stared at them all with inexpressible surprise. The pain that she went through beforehand; it can all end here.

"_So this is what the Fairy Tail guild is like." _Roxanne thinks to herself surprised. Erza noticed her and grabbed her arm, pulling her into the group as she held Roxanne's fist up.

"Come on now, you're part of the guild too." Erza says, Roxanne looking at her surprised. She looked up at her first and looked back down at Erza, who was like a role-model to her too. She couldn't help it; she wanted to smile. She smiled and had fit in with the group too, and Axel just did it for the heck of it. There was only one person missing though; Zawisza. Everyone looked at her and she just looked at them back with an annoyed expression.

"Do I really have to do that?" Zawisza says annoyed, Roxanne looking at her. She wanted her to do it, but she would probably hate it so Roxanne just let it slide. She sighed in response.

"Fine." Roxanne says, finalizing the group fist pump as they all take their hands down and prepare to search for everyone else; which was like four people? Erza instantly took charge, coming up with an idea so that everyone can scatter and look for them separately.

"Alright, Gray and Axel will go out searching for Pantherlily and Levy, since they were the last ones we saw in the lab room. Natsu and Dayton will go in search of Gajeel, and Roxanne, Zawisza, Lucy I will go search for Kyousuke. Understood?" Erza explains, everyone agreeing with the plan. They all made a Fairy Tail cheer and went down the hallway that Zawisza came through when first confronting them. They continued down it to find a large circular area that had five paths. Luckily, Zawisza was with them and she could determine where they needed to go. That wasn't going to be easy though because they didn't know where the others were, and if they ran into more enemies than they could handle, that would be a major issue. She took charge temporarily.

"Alright, you ice mages should go down the path to the farther right here. The fire and lava mages should go straight ahead and take the slightly left pathway. You, Roxanne and Erza, will go down the path to the farther left, and I'll go down the slightly right pathway ahead with this Lucy and get an escape route set up." Zawisza explains, surprising Roxanne and Lucy, who was unexpectedly going with her.

"Wait, you're not coming with us?" Roxanne asks surprised, only for Zawisza to turn and wink in response.

"Don't worry, this place is imprinted in my head like a map, and I have fewer problems to deal with. They haven't quite figured out that I betrayed them just yet. You two go on, I'll be fine." Zawisza explains. Roxanne was unsure about it, but decided to just let her do her thing.

"Alright then, do whatever. Just don't die on us." Roxanne says, Zawisza only smiling in response before taking off into her path. Just as she did, everyone else took their ways into their respective paths, and they continued on in the search of everyone else so they could get out of here.

Down Roxanne and Erza's path, it was dark with metal borders shaped around it. It was pretty much like this throughout the base, except this time they were heading for the center of the base, and this was above ground where the madness room was. Roxanne couldn't help but think about two things; first, Kyousuke having been involved with the D-Raided previously, and two, Gajeel being affected by the madness. She was unaware of Kyousuke also being in the madness room again, but that didn't stop her from worrying about the both of them. She had to make sure Erza knew about it.

"Erza, there's something I need to tell you." She says, stopping in her tracks and turning to Erza as she stops too, being surprised.

"Well tell me, what is it?" She asks curiously, Roxanne going on.

"Kyousuke may be our priority but Gajeel's in a bad situation."

"What makes you say that?" Erza asks surprised, Roxanne going on to explain.

"Apparently, there is a madness room in this base, and when I fell down that hole in the ground, I fell into it." Roxanne explains. Erza thinks about it for a bit.

"I see. What problem does this present?"

"Somehow the negative energy manipulates you into doing strange things, such as going mad. Apparently I had fell victim to the madness when I was fighting Zawisza. She explained it all and I somehow was able to hear her the entire time." Roxanne explains, surprising Erza. Erza was able to catch on to what Roxanne was saying rather quickly.

"Are you saying, that when you were down there, Gajeel was there too?!"

"Unfortunately." Roxanne says, Erza becoming shocked over such.

"If what you say is true, do you know how dangerous he would become if he was to fall victim to it as well?!"

"That's exactly my point. His personality is the perfect match for a psychotic expression of madness." Roxanne explains. "It's just that I don't know how to cure it."

"Well, we need to find out how to cure it as soon as possible." Erza explains, starting to run past Roxanne as Roxanne starts to follow Erza. Erza immediately turned her attention to Gajeel this time, needing to stop him from losing control before it's too late. However, Erza is stopped when a familiar D-Raided member pops out in-front of her.

"It's you losers again, let's have some fun!" The guy says, only to be immediately slashed by Erza's sword. He turns into a liquid substance and moves behind Roxanne, who immediately realizes such.

"Roxanne, behind you!" Erza shouts, just as the guy is about to bind her with his liquid. Roxanne, however, requipped a Scythe this time, instantly whipping it behind her and slashing through the guy. She then spun around with it and slashed through him again, slicing upwards through him afterwards and then backing off. The guy took much longer to return to normal this time, but he was still able to.

"Oh wow, have you losers gotten at least a little bit better than the last time we fought?" The guy asks cockily, only for Roxanne and Erza to give him a serious expression. Roxanne narrowed her eyes in response.

"This time, we aren't playing any games. I may be good with swords but in reality, I'm a scythe master." Roxanne explains, surprising Erza.

"You're good with Scythes?"

"Pretty much; that's all I wanted to train with anyways." Roxanne says, having a smile on her face. Erza only gave a calm smile; the other guy being aggravated.

"Oh yeah? Let's see!" He shouts, quickly running up to Roxanne as she immediately takes action. He tries to punch her, but she instantly blocks it with the top of her Scythe, immediately flipping it around to block against another attack from him. She then flips the blade from the bottom upwards to slash through him vertically; turning him into a liquid substance again as she does a sideways slash to cut through him like a plus sign. However, she is unaware of the liquid that got stuck to her blade, and doesn't notice it right away until the guy points it out. "Watch out, girl!" He says cockily, causing the stuff to attack Roxanne as she looks at it surprised. Erza notices and tries to get her attention.

"Roxanne, be careful!" She shouts, getting ready to enter the fight herself. Roxanne immediately sees it, but only smiles cleverly. Her scythe then glows a real vibrant yellow, strangely enough. You'd think her magic circles would be green, but they are in-fact yellow. It's just that her favorite color is green but her magic energy and personality is yellow in color. The guy suddenly shouts out in pain, holding on to his arm as blood starts shooting out from it. Suddenly the liquid on Roxanne's scythe goes away, and Erza watches in awe. The guy was standing there in pain.

"Augh, damn you brat!" The guy says, only for Roxanne to instantly retort.

"If I can't damage you with my blade, I might as well burn you. It seems that you're sensitive to magic energy, since I was easily able to cut through you by channeling my magic through your body." Roxanne explains, Erza watching in surprise.

"_What a smart tactic. She's certainly on her feet." _She says in surprise. Erza had requipped into her Robe of Yuen, ready to take on this guy as she wasn't playing around anymore either. Both Erza and Roxanne stood side-by-side, ready to take out this guy instantly.


	24. Chapter 24: Getting Serious

Chapter 24: Getting Serious

Fairy Tail and everyone else were getting serious; they needed to defeat the D-Raided and leave the base once and for all. Erza and Roxanne kept fighting the guy that ambushed them on their way to the center of the base. Erza looked at her armor, realizing that she had requipped the Robe of Yuen, which was shockingly not what she wanted.

"The Robe of Yuen?" Erza says surprised, catching the other two's attention. "But how? I should be wearing my Sea Empress Armor!" Erza says shocked, surprising Roxanne as she starts to feel strange energy around her. Erza starts to realize that she can feel the magic energy too.

"Let me inform you; the magic being released from the base is meant to screw with your magic energy. We've kept this entire continent from sensing magic energy so our plans could go about without interruptions!" The guy explains, shocking Erza and Roxanne both.

"What?!" Roxanne says shocked.

"So all this time; we couldn't sense each other's magic power because of this organization?!" Erza says angrily, causing the guy to laugh in amusement.

"Baffled, are you? We only did the stupid shit because people were tracking us down on a daily basis, but it seems that your group managed to get the upper hand in a few days alone." The guy explains, as Erza and Roxanne look at him shocked. They start to get serious, thinking about what else may happen.

"This may be an advantage for us," Roxanne explains, "Now since we're able to sense magic power, finding everyone else in this base should be much easier."

"That's true. However, we need to finish this guy off before we head to the core of the base." Erza explains, requipping once more. She tries requipping into her Sea Empress armor once more, which randomly works as she is able to use it now, annoying the guy in response. Erza and Roxanne get ready to take the guy out right at that second. "You ready?" Erza asks, Roxanne smiling confidently.

"Absolutely." She says in response, ready to fight with her scythe against the guy. Erza gets ready to charge after him too.

"Alright, let's move!" Erza commands, as the two take off after the guy, who is smiling with a cocky attitude. Erza thought about how to take him down as she charged after him with Roxanne. "_If he is so easily damaged by magic energy alone, we'll have to get him to use his defensive liquid form first before we channel our magic energy into him._" Erza thinks to herself. Roxanne manages to get to the guy first, slicing upwards as he simply uses his magic to convert into a liquid state. Roxanne slashes across the middle of his torso to keep him in his liquid state, allowing Erza to come in with her Sea Empress armor and land attacks. Erza saw it and took advantage of the opportunity in-front of her. "Here goes!" She shouts out loud, using water magic that comes from the sword. Her sword started glowing a vibrant pink; the color of her magic circle. She channeled as much magic energy as she could into the blast of water from the sword, hitting the guy in his liquid state as it manages to have the same effect as with Roxanne. The guy screams in pain as he transforms back into his normal state to deal with the pain.

"Damn you bitch!" He shouts, Erza thinking more intellectually this time.

"It worked just as I thought!" She says surprised, watching as Roxanne takes advantage of the guy being in pain and prepares to slice him again. This time, she slices downward, managing to cut through his right shoulder as he doesn't switch to his liquid form before it hits him. He then switch to liquid form then, cursing more as he floats about in the form while dealing with the pain, which seems to have intensified as he screams more when in the state. Roxanne and Erza noticed it, and they managed to figure it out. "I see," Erza says with certainty, "His liquid form is susceptible to more pain than his normal state, which explains why he's so easily damaged by magic power."

"We need to attack him now Erza!" Roxanne says confidently, Erza agreeing.

"Right. Let's go!" She shouts, charging her magic energy to incredibly high levels as Roxanne does the same. Once ready, they quickly jump off and fly up to the guy in a liquid state, ready to finish him and be done with him. He starts to panic while up in the air, not being able to avoid the attack in his state, for whatever he does it'll end with the same result.

"_No, this isn't right! How can they just come in and defeat us so easily?!" _He thinks to himself shocked, staring at the two with horror. Erza had a dead-set angry expression on her face.

"This is what you get for what you did to Lucy and Levy! Never mess with Fairy Tail again!" She shouts angrily, as she and Roxanne slice through the guy with their magic power. They cut straight through him, flying past him as he screams in endless agony before hitting the ground like a normal liquid. His voice started to fade away into nothing as the two wizards landed on the ground, looking back and seeing a purple puddle of liquid just sitting there. They were breathing a bit heavy, but they didn't use too much power. They still had enough for any serious battles they may encounter on the journey. "That was quick at least. We shouldn't use up anymore magic power unless it's necessary." Erza states as Roxanne agrees. She turns and looks at the puddle again, relieved that they were able to stop him from doing anything else.

"Alright, since we've stopped him, let's get to the center of the base." Roxanne explains, Erza instantly agreeing. Erza requips back to her normal armor and the two of them start running down past the puddle to find the center of the base. However, Roxanne steps in the puddle, and right as she runs ahead, something shoots out and grabs her by the neck. It was the purple liquid; putting Roxanne in a chokehold as Erza turns in shock to witness it.

"Roxanne!" Erza shouts in fear, seeing her struggle to break free as the purple liquid chokes her in an attempt put her out of consciousness.

"_You thought it was that easy?! What a joke! I'm gonna knock you out so I can revive through your magic energy lady!" _The guy shouts in an aggravated attitude. Roxanne thought that she could break free by using her magic energy, and so she tried with all her might. However, it didn't work like she expected, shocking both her and Erza at the same time. "_Oh yeah, keep using that same trick. I'll just suck it all up like a vacuum!" _The guy shouts, Erza getting frustrated in the process.

"Curse you bastard!" Erza says angrily, requipping once again as it messes up on her once more. She requips into her Flight armor unintentionally, causing her even more frustration. "Dammit! This isn't the armor that I wanted!"

"_Hahahaha! Guess that's the price to pay when you requip_!" The guy says cockily, further choking Roxanne as she struggles to break free. Erza looks on in rising tension.

"_This isn't good. I need to figure out how to destroy this guy!" _Erza thinks to herself in frustration, hearing Roxanne's cries for her as she desperately looks for a weak spot. Looking behind Roxanne, she spots a large brain inside of the water, instantly thinking of hitting it. "That's it!" Erza shouts angrily, using her flight armor to quickly fly up to the brain as Roxanne is near complete magic drainage. She pulls out her swords and quickly prepares to thrust them into the brain. "Die you bastard!" Erza shouts in outrage, thrusting the swords into the brain as purple blood sprays everywhere as a result. A horrific scream from the creature is heard as a result, causing the creature death upon the impact of the strike. It lightened its grip on Roxanne as it died, letting her fall forward as her strength was drained as a result. Erza saw her fall and immediately ran over to catch her.

"Roxanne!" She shouts, dropping her swords and catching her before she hits the ground. She looks at Roxanne shocked; seeing her breathing heavily and trying to regain at least a little bit of magic energy to start recovering on. Erza was upset at the turn of events. "_This isn't good. With what we're going to be heading into, she won't have any magic energy to call upon. I'll have to figure out how to recover her energy quickly." _Erza thinks to herself. Roxanne is too weakened at the moment to speak, so Erza picks her up. Carrying her, she decided to move down to the center of the base while carrying her, allowing Roxanne to recover her magic energy faster since they don't have any time to waste just sitting there. She had many things on her mind; making it to the center of the base, finding Gajeel and warning him about the situation he's in (unaware he already knows of the madness) and finding Kyousuke. She decided to just focus on finding the center of the base, as she may be able to pick up on Gajeel's magic power when she senses it.

Everyone else noticed the sudden sense of magic power, which made them all surprised and relieved. They all decided to take it to their advantage, with Zawisza realizing what the D-Raided were doing.

* * *

On the other hand, Gray and Axel have business of their own to deal with. They continued on down until they ran into a lab room, stopping in their tracks and noticing something very shocking.

"What the hell is this place?" Gray says perplexed, before widening his eyes in shock as Axel does the same. They stood there in shock, seeing a lab room with a bunch of bodies in blue tubes. They had walked in slowly, looking at everything in complete shock.

"What the hell are these guys even thinking?!" Axel shouts in shock, being angered that these people are in such condition. They stood there in shock, before being alerted by something else.

"They're dead anyway. Just some experiments of mine for my research." Someone says, causing the two to turn around towards the entrance. In front of them they saw the same lab guy that ambushed them in the first place. Gray gained an angry expression on his face.

"So it's you again, huh?" Gray says angrily but surprised. The lab guy just stared at him with a bored expression on his face. "I thought Roxanne took care of you earlier when we last met." Gray explains, causing the lab guy to just sigh and start explaining.

"I'm afraid that was one of my genetically engineered clones you encountered beforehand. They're so perfect that I may even be a clone myself." The lab guy explains with a calm expression. Gray and Axel prepared to fight the guy on the spot, ready to stop him with whatever means necessary.

"I could care less about how perfect your clones are. You're not gonna beat the two of us so easily this time!" Axel says, having his hands on top of each other in opposite directions, palms against each other with the backs facing up and down. Ice energy was seen forming from his palms, just as seen with Gray's usual Ice-Make stance. The lab guy seemed unimpressed, standing there without a care as Axel made the first move.

"Ice Magic: Freezer Beam!" He shouts, pulling his hands apart from each other as he forms a beam of ice in his palms. Gray watches in surprise as Axel takes the beam and quickly swings it across the room, hitting the lab guy as the temperature of where the beam crossed reduces dramatically. While the lab guy grabbed the beam of ice, he is then surprised as he witnesses the drop in temperature, leaving Axel and Gray unaffected while the lab guy's feet stick to the ground; being frozen in place. Gray then attacks with his Ice Make: Lance, firing several lances of ice at the lab guy as they penetrate him and send him flying into the wall outside of the room. They both run out, looking at the guy with smirks on their faces as they had pinned him to the wall successfully.

"Yeah, we got him." Gray says in a complacent tone. They were relieved until the lab guy suddenly started talking to them unexpectedly.

"Sorry, but I'm just a clone!" The lab guy says in a poppy tone, exploding into vapor as the two stand there in anger, being upset that it was just a fake.

"Dammit! It was just a fake!" Gray says angrily, Axel standing there annoyed as well. However, Axel tried to ignore it, wanting to focus more on the real issue on their hands.

"Well, we may as well just keep looking for the others. There's nothing here that can help, and if those people are dead anyway there's nothing we can do here now." Axel suggests. Gray then accepts, as they then start heading down the path to the right, continuing to look for Pantherlily and Levy.

* * *

In the meantime, Gajeel had some plans of his own. He kept searching for Kyousuke, stopping in his tracks upon sensing the magic energy that has been released.

"That's strange. I can feel magic energy surging through me." He says to himself, looking at his hands as he can feel the magic energy just flowing through them. He gained a grin on his face in response. "Well then, it'll just make tracking him down a whole lot easier." Gajeel says, continuing down the path. He was getting closer to the center, unaware of it though as he turns a left in the hallway he's in and finds himself in another storage room. It was a bunch of boxes stacked on top of each other in various amounts and ways. There was room for Gajeel to walk, and he walked in perplexed. "What kind of place is this?" Gajeel says to himself confused, looking around as he looks up at an air vent in the ceiling. He sees a woman standing there with a rocket launcher, seeing her fire it directly at him as he stands there surprised. It flies down at high speed, surprising Gajeel as it hits the ground and blows up a large area of the storage room. All that was visible was smoke as the girl who fired it laughed in a flirtatious voice. It was none other than Felicia Airstorm.

"Too bad he looked tempting; I might have given him a chance to play with me!" Felicia says in a giggly tone, laughing weirdly until she's interrupted.

"What an idiot." Gajeel says, catching her attention as she turns and sees him alive, surprising her. "A weapon like that's got nothing on me."

"Oh really?" Felicia says seductively, trying to turn him on as she attempted with Kyousuke. Her tactic was to turn people on sexually so that they would be too distracted to stop her from killing them. It obviously didn't work with Kyousuke, and she was too stupid to notice that Gajeel wouldn't give a shit anyways. He was just standing there, looking at her curiously as he wondered what she was doing. She tried playing him again, analyzing his muscles and body since he was shirtless. "Oh wow, your voice is dark, and your body is perfectly toned! So seductive! Mind spending time with me for a while?" She tempts with over-exaggeration, trying to turn him on and get him to come flying up to her in a drastic amount of sexual love. However, it was useless. He just stood there and looked at her with a perplexed expression on his face.

"_Man, what is it with this woman_?" He thinks to himself confused, as he just answers her question annoyed. "What's your deal lady? I ain't gonna spend any time with you."

"Oh come on, I'll show you some more, and we can get dirty if you want." Felicia says with a smirk on her face, winking and tempting to show cleavage as Gajeel seemed uninterested. Gajeel just chuckled out of amusement, causing Felicia to look at him confused.

"Wha wha…why are you laughing?!" Felicia asks in shock as Gajeel simply answers the question, replacing his amusement with irritation.

"I don't care about your stupid dating crap! Now get lost, I don't have any time to waste on you." Gajeel just states, starting to walk ahead and out of the room as Felicia gets aggravated by that statement. She quickly loads another rocket as Gajeel looks up and notices.

"You arrogant bitch! How dare you insult my sexual tendencies!" She yells angrily, firing another rocket at Gajeel as he goes to dodge it. "You're just an arrogant bastard like that Kyousuke brat I met earlier!" She yells angrily, Gajeel overhearing it as he stands out of the way of the rocket's explosion.

"_So she met Kyousuke huh?"_ Gajeel thinks to himself cleverly, "_She might know where he is. I'll just have to beat it out of her._" He stood there, feeling a slight amount of his magical energy being drained as he looks at the explosion surprised. "What?! I can feel my magical energy being drained!"

"That's because these rockets absorb magic energy sexy. You better watch out; I would be more interested in you when you're awake, so try not to die on me kay." Felicia taunts again, annoying Gajeel. He saw her in the vent, and decided to take her out straight away.

"Enough of this crap!" He shouts, jumping up and using his Iron Dragon's Club to hit her right in the vent. He managed to make contact, baffling her as she was pushed back a great ways in the vent. Gajeel managed to push her back with enough force that it caused the ceiling to collapse, falling to the ground as she gets covered in debris while also dealing with the pain of the fall. Gajeel watches as dust from the debris floats about, walking up to Felicia with a serious expression as she tries getting up from the debris. She had a tough time, being more damaged by the collapse than she thought. She looked at Gajeel with an angry face, only for Gajeel to grab her by her clothing and pick her up. Fear started to enter her as he pinned her to the wall, getting up face-to-face and asking her questions.

"Alright, tell me where Kyousuke is or eat a knuckle sandwich!" Gajeel demands, which in turn causes Felicia to start shaking uncontrollably. Gajeel gave her a serious expression, which looked like he was staring into her soul to Felicia; especially with her over-exaggerated tendencies. She couldn't answer the question, for she was too terrified to answer them. She had never been in this position before, surprisingly, and it drove her mad.

"_I could never imagine a man being so horrifying!"_ She thinks to herself in shock. Her eyes were so wide, and Gajeel didn't move a single muscle. She started screaming in terror as Gajeel looked at her with extreme confusion, only to be even more confused as she passes out in the process. Seeing this, he just got highly annoyed and he tossed her against the wall; letting her drag down to the ground as he rubbed his hands against one another. She just lied there unconscious as Gajeel started heading out of the room.

"Ridiculous. That woman's got some serious issues!" Gajeel says annoyed, running out of the room to continue finding Kyousuke again, since obviously Felicia was no sort of help whatsoever.

He continued down the hallway before stopping before a small room to his right. From where he was standing, it looked like a lab room with a bunch of digital machinery inside. He instantly thought of using it to his advantage.

"That girl used the technology in this place to control the cameras and get a bird's eye view. If I can control those cameras, then I'll be able to find Kyousuke." Gajeel says to himself while grinning. He walks in, noticing the large green screen that would seem to control all the cameras in the place. However, all it said on the screen was, "Press Enter." Gajeel read it and looked down on the keyboard in-front of the screen, quickly finding the enter key as he just pressed it once. The screen changed into a logo that said, "Madness Test," with a large wall of text underneath it. "What the hell is this?" Gajeel says to himself. He began to read the text out-loud in hopes of finding out at least something from the stupid machine.

"Madness Test. This test is a test that determines the amount of madness influence you have in your system. The test was made as a form of diagnosis for the madness that enters the body upon being located inside the madness room. This madness 'energy' can cause the creature to enter a state of insanity on a level based on their personality and amount of madness energy intake. Furthermore, the creature can become unaware of what they are doing and may unintentionally kill others, despite connections the creature has made with them. WARNING: This room will self-destruct if madness detection is recognized at level 100, due to extreme amounts of madness inside the creature and their destructive personality. The madness can be cured by Madness Serum Injections or by having the creature's Earthland counterpart heal them through the process of magical energy injection. However, the likelihood of situation two happening is near impossible. Be cautious." He reads out-loud. He began to remember what Kyousuke had told him earlier.

"Kyousuke told me about this madness. Apparently, that was the Room of Insanity then." Gajeel thinks to himself, remembering what Kyousuke said about it. He decided to take the test; better knowing about how effected he is rather then go on assuming the whole time.

"I might as well take it then." Gajeel says, pressing enter again as a prompt appears on screen.

"Place your hand on the outline below." A female, monotone voice says. A yellow arrow points down to the outline, as Gajeel places a hand on it. It scans his magical energy input, displaying the level of madness on the screen. Suddenly, Gajeel is caught off guard as sirens in the room go off and the screen displays, "ERROR, ERROR: LEVEL 100 DETECTED." Gajeel widens his eyes in response, completely baffled and appalled.

"No way. How in the hell did the madness shoot up to 100?!" Gajeel shouts in shock. He turns and realizes the room is closing down, activating its self-destruct sequence as stated in the readme. "Dammit, I better get the hell out of here!" Gajeel shouts, sprinting for the door as it's nearly closed. He jumps and slides right under the door, barely making it out as it shuts and locks itself. Lying on the ground outside of the room, he hears the explosion on the inside, getting up and looking at the locked door with shock. He couldn't really believe that the level was at 100. "That's crazy. Level 100 huh? I better find a way to fix this crap fast." He says to himself annoyed and shocked. He starts moving again, but this time he starts to sense magic energy. He can sense its Kyousuke's, but it's very faint. At least he can sense it. He gains a smile on his face, ready to find him and get the hell out of here. "Yeah, that's more like it." He says chuckling. He starts running towards the magic energy, attempting to get closer as they finally get out of here. He is unware of what is to come, however.


	25. Chapter 25: Ice Mages & the Bomb

Chapter 25: Ice Mages &amp; the Bomb

Gray and Axel had yet to see another battle from the lab guy again. They continued down the halls, managing to get closer to the center of the base unintentionally as they tried tracking down Pantherlily and Levy. They couldn't sense their energy so easily from where they were, but they could at least sense the energy flowing throughout the base. Basically, the amount of magic energy flowing through the base is quite high, so the ability to find someone through the use of sensing magic energy has skyrocketed, allowing the whole group's mission to be achieved at a much easier difficulty. It also meant that D-Raided members could be easily tracked down too, but it was also the same vice versa. Gray and Axel somehow managed to find themselves in the biochemistry room they were in earlier, with all the monstrous plants and so forth. This time, they saw the real lab guy working on extracting certain liquids from plants to make some kind of formula.

"Hey! Quit that right now!" Gray yells, approaching the lab guy as he looks at them with a slightly surprised expression on his face.

"How unfortunate, it seems they found the real me." He says to himself a bit intrigued. Gray decides to deal the first attack by instantly using an Ice Make: Hammer, remembering how badly they were beaten last time.

"_I'm not gonna lose to this creep again." _Gray thinks to him confidently, ready to beat the lab guy into the ground. Surprisingly, the lab guy counters by firing a purple orb that stops the hammer in place, acting as an opposing force as Gray and Axel stand there in shock.

"What the heck," Gray says in shock, "It just froze in midair!"

"Of course it did; something as easily thought of as a hammer can be just as easily countered." The lab guy explains, aggravating the two.

"We'll see about that!" Axel shouts, jumping onto Gray's hammer and jumping in the air as he fires another Ice Beam. However, this one simply freezes whatever it comes into contact with, which causes a stream of ice on the floor at first due to its inability to control initially. Once he gains control, he manages to direct it towards the lab guy, who fires a green orb in response at Axel. It slows down his movements, causing the beam to move much slower as the lab guy fires a red orb at Axel, which flies right into him and explodes like a bomb. He is sent flying into a nearby wall of the building as he collides right into it and slides down to the ground helplessly. Gray turns in shock, wondering if he's alright as the lab guy continues to ramble on about his intelligence.

"Is this really the best you can do? I don't even have to move and I already have the upper hand." The lab guy taunts with a bored attitude, only angering Gray. He resorts to using his Ice Make: Freeze Lancer, quickly targeting the lab guy with a high speed spell that should give him the upper hand right away.

"Don't get cocky! I'll do whatever it takes to beat you right here and now!" Gray shouts angrily, watching as the lab guy doesn't have enough time to slow it down before it hits him. It manages to pierce the lab guy painfully as Gray closely observes the entirety of the attack. It managed to make dents in the ground with the power of the attack. The lab guy stands there, stunned while being pierced by the attack.

"Impressive, so you managed to fire a spell that was fast enough to bypass my defensives. They also aren't physical weapons. Perhaps I'll have to rethink my strategy on taking you down again." The lab guy explains, Gray looking at him determined as he prepares to use another spell.

"Ever since I've became a Fairy Tail wizard, I've never lost to the same opponent twice."

"Well it looks like that streak will be broken soon enough." The lab guy explains, firing a red orb again at Gray who jumps out of the way of the orb, watching as it hits the ground and explodes like it did with Axel. Axel managed to get back into the situation, realizing what's happening. He looks and sees that the lab guy decides to float about in the air with his air-glide shoes, which allow him to travel amongst the surface of the air. Axel decides to turn the tables to their advantage.

"_If I can knock that guy down, we can both use an attack to take him out right then and there when we get the chance." _Axel thinks to himself, quickly putting his hands to the floor as if he was Gray making an ice floor. He stood there for a bit, charging magic energy that was white in color as he prepared to use the spell. "Ice Magic: Raining Glacier." He says initiating the spell as the atmosphere in the room starts to darken slightly. Gray looks around in awe as the lab guy looks up in the air with peaking interest, wondering what's happening himself.

"_What's this Axel up to now?" _He thinks to himself, watching as large, frozen rain drops fall from the air and hit the ground, instantly turning the floor to ice as it starts to shape the room around them. Gray looks over at Axel surprised, only to see him tiring out a bit quickly. The area behind the lab guy rises up at a dramatically high speed, forming an instantaneous glacier as it sends the whole group straight up in the air, crashing through all the plants and objects in the room as it shoots up straight for the ceiling. Gray starts to worry right away.

"We're gonna crash into the ceiling!" Gray shouts in slight panic, Axel making another move with his ice magic. He makes multiple hand signs before putting one hand up in the air, palm up, and the other flat on the surface. He uses a spell called Ice Magic: Structure Penetration, which sends a spiral of ice from his palms, making an arrow that shoots straight through the ceiling. You could see sweat on Axel's face at this point; having used two very magic consuming spells. The arrow blasts through the ceiling, shattering it to pieces as everyone shoots up sky high. Large pieces of the base were falling straight for the ground as they managed to reach the outside of the base; finally back into the wilderness again. They could all see the large valleys and mountains and beautiful sky that was there, but it turns out that it was nearing night time. The sun was heading down as the moon was rising. Anyway, the lab guy looked at Axel with great surprise as Axel started breathing extremely heavily from the spells he just used. The glacier was still rising slowly.

"Well then, mind at least telling me what your name is?" Gray asks out of curiosity, the lab guy repositioning his glasses before responding.

"Intelon." The lab guy says, leaving Gray and Axel in a major state of confusion.

"What the heck kind of name is that supposed to be?" Gray asks, being very perplexed as Intelon only sighs in response. Axel agrees as well.

"Yeah, no kidding. Are you trying to sound cool or something?"

"It's called creativity, a concept the likes of you two seem to not understand." Intelon taunts. They all were standing in a triangle formation from each other on top of the glacier. Gray seemed amused and challenged, ready to prove Intelon wrong.

"You're saying I not creative, huh?" Gray asks surprised. "I'm an Ice Make wizard four eyes; I can _create _anything."

"Well then prove it to me if you're so confident in your creativity!" Intelon says, challenging Gray with a belief that no one could outmatch his creativity. Gray accepted the challenge, letting Axel rest for a bit before he decides to take on Intelon and crush him.

"You're making a big mistake here; Ice Make: Arrows!" He shouts, instantly creating a crossbow made of ice right before his eyes. Intelon watched in shock as Gray instantly took the crossbow and began firing a multiplitude of arrows made of ice directly at Intelon. Intelon quickly dodged the arrows as Gray kept firing them at him, Intelon heading for Axel instead, knowing he would be easy to take down.

"_Axel should be an easy target, considering that his magical power has been drained significantly." _Intelon thinks to himself, only to be stopped when Gray makes an Ice Make: Saucer and fires it directly at Intelon. Noticing the saucer, Intelon quickly dodges it in time and decides to distract Gray instead. "It looks like Ice Boy here won't let me touch him." Intelon says, annoying Gray instantly.

"I HATE BEING CALLED THAT!" Gray shouts annoyed, Intelon looking at him with the same calm expression. He went ahead and fired a red orb again at Gray, only for him to dodge it easily as it explodes and makes a small crater on the glacier. "You should know by now that's not gonna work." Gray taunts, not realizing the yellow orb sliding across the ground in-front of him.

"And you should be paying attention." Intelon states, causing Gray surprise as he's caught off-guard by the orb. They both knew that he wouldn't be able to stop it in time.

"Oh crap!" Gray shouts shocked, watching as he comes into contact with the orb. It bursts and forms into a yellow liquid that covers his legs and binds him into the ground. Lying down on the glacier with his feet stuck, Gray realizes that Intelon is starting to gain the upper hand once again. Intelon laughs a bit in slight joy as Gray tries to break free.

"That substance is a special wax with an ultra-high density and mass compound. Simply freezing it will never set you free." Intelon explains, angering Gray as he continues to try to break free. Intelon, now having dealt with Gray, turns to Axel, who has been watching the whole time. However, he seemed extremely drained. He didn't expect to have the glacier up for this long, which consumed his magic energy faster than he had anticipated. Sweat was pouring from his face and body from the amount of magic energy consumed by the massive spell, which was causing him great struggles to move physically. He kept fearing what Intelon did to them last time when they under-estimated him and lost, being hung up in the room. Gray tried freezing the wax anyways, but it didn't break like Intelon had stated. He tried to freeze it at incredibly low temperatures, trying to get the temperature to drop at an even faster speed so he could break free. However, he couldn't do it in time, and Intelon was already close to Axel.

"Hey Axel! What are you just standing there for?! Get out of there! You need to move!" Gray shouted, trying to get him to move. Axel struggles though; it was simply too much for him. Intelon was standing right next to him, ready to take him out.

"I wanted to extract your power, but it seems my orders are to kill you immediately."

"Orders?!" Gray says surprised. Gray then thought about it in surprise. "_If he's been given orders, where are they coming from?" _He thinks to himself in confusion. He continued trying to break free as Intelon was ready to kill Axel. However, Axel said something in response.

"I remember it all." He says, surprising Intelon. He stops for a minute, being more interested in what Axel has to say before killing him right there.

"Remember what?"

"Remember the incident back at Magos Hill? The incident when you ambushed us?" Axel asks, surprising Gray as he wonders what he's talking about. Intelon suddenly, remembers, narrowing his eyes in response. He seemed slightly annoyed by such a comment. Luckily, this allowed time for Gray to drastically drop the temperature of the wax, causing a small crack to appear in it at the minimum. Axel went on. "You were with all of them, and when I froze them and gave myself up as a sacrifice, you broke your promise and messed with their heads!" Axel yells angrily, looking at him with an angry look in his eyes. Intelon simply went on about it like it was nothing of importance.

"They just had their memory erased…"

"That's not all!" Axel says angrily. He goes on as Gray watches in shock. "I heard Roxanne scream when I was unconscious. I saw her face after I was awake. I know you did something else to her." Axel says. He had a more stern and angry look, and not so rash and aggressive like Dayton's and Natsu's, nor as hateful as Kyousuke's. Intelon just went on like it wasn't important once again.

"When the brain sees something that was erased by that technique I used, it reacts in such a way that it cannot comprehend what is being remembered. It has an overload of memories of everything that happened with that person, and it causes the person traumatic events. It seemed that Roxanne knows a lot more about you than I anticipated." Intelon explains. "Why are you so oblivious to that; you should know that it's a result of her memory being forgotten."

"I know. I just needed to buy some time." Axel states, smiling as Intelon looked at him confused. Suddenly, he hears shattering ice, instantly turning and seeing that Gray has broken himself free from the wax. Intelon then entered a state of panic.

"IMPOSSIBLE! My research has never failed me!" Intelon yells, watching as Gray runs up to them, ignoring Intelon's comment.

"AXEL! Do it NOW!" He shouts, just as Axel smiles in response. He lets go of the spell, which causes the glacier to start breaking down and dispersing into nothing as the spell has ended. Being majorly drained, Axel simply moves himself back, knowing that the glacier's surface is going to crack too. It does, which causes the mages to fall down with it. Axel controls himself in midair while Gray starts making his move.

"Gray, now it's your turn!" Axel shouts, just as Gray acknowledges such. He makes his move, heading for Intelon as he prepares to stop him in this drastic moment of the glacier collapsing to the ground. Intelon turns and notices, firing red orbs at Gray in order to stop him.

"Stay away from me! I'll never let you ruin this!" Intelon yells angrily. Gray just ignores him, ready to take him out instantly.

"I'm taking my friends back and no one's stopping me!" Gray shouts, preparing to use his Ice Blade: Seven Slice Dance on him. He does, doing five slashes separately and then finalizing the attack with a double slash in the end. He ends up knocking Intelon unconscious; leaving bruises on him as a result and letting him fall. He fell to the ground helplessly as the ice on Gray's arms cracked off and dissipated. They managed to land on the ground with ease, noticing how the glacier had turned into nothing and how Intelon was just lying there on the ground unconscious. Axel was able to pick himself up from the ground, though walking was going to be a bit difficult for a moment since the amount of magic energy he used in the spell was tremendous. You would think it would be if he was able to make a glacier that large and a spell that destroyed part of the base instantly. He hasn't gotten strong enough to handle the complete power of the spell.

Anyways, he was getting up and Gray walked over to Intelon to make sure he was down. From Gray's point of view, he looked pretty much done for. He walked back over to Axel, looking around the place and noticing how much of it changed due to Axel's spell. The plants were pretty much dead and it was colder than ever; not that it bothered Gray at all.

"Jeez, what kind of ice magic is that supposed to be?" Gray says out of surprise. Axel gets up, regaining his breath as he responds.

"They're just some of my most powerful ice magic spells. I wasn't going to let that guy beat us again."

"No joke." Gray responds, being initially surprised by the effects of the spell. Axel was able to stand and walk normally again, but any intense fighting will have to wait for him.

"Since this guy is toast, we should go look for everyone else." Axel suggests, Gray agreeing. They look ahead of them and see the door that Erza and Roxanne broke down when they came in earlier, and they start heading in that direction.

"If only it were that easy for you." Intelon says sternly, causing Gray and Axel to turn around in bafflement. They widened their eyes a bit open seeing him sit up forcefully.

"What the heck?!" Gray shouts in shock, "I thought we pounded this guy?"

"You tried, but it wasn't enough!" Intelon shouts. He pulls a silver stick that has a button on the top, instantly pushing it as he smiles in an evil way.

* * *

Suddenly, sirens can be heard going off all-over the base, causing everyone to freeze in their tracks as they hear it. Zawisza was the first to recognize exactly what it was.

"What?!" She shouts, causing Lucy to stop and turn to her in confusion.

"What's going on?"

"That bastard Intelon set off the self-detonation timer!"

"What?!" Lucy shouts in shock. They suddenly hear the female, robotic voice go off and explain the details.

"The D-Raided self-detonation explosive device has been activated. The bomb will go off in approximately an hour." It explains. Zawisza was seen stomping the ground in anger, Lucy fearing the fate of everyone else.

"This is bad. What are we supposed to do?!" Lucy shouts alarmed.

"Just follow me!" Zawisza shouts angrily, grabbing Lucy and running as fast as she could. She had her mind set on getting to the deporting station, which holds all of their vehicles. They won't be able to run out fast enough to escape the explosion alive, right?

Dayton and Natsu heard it too. They started to panic and get angry at the same time.

"No way. This base is gonna explode in an hour?!" Dayton shouts alarmed too. He started to get frustrated on the spot. "Dammit!" He shouts, clenching his fists tightly as Natsu does the same.

"Those bastards! They aren't getting away with this!" Natsu shouts furiously. He starts angrily running through the base, desperately trying to find everyone else as Dayton follows him too. Dayton couldn't help but feel conflicted about everything though. He would normally be angry too, but he had too much on his mind to exert such an emotion.

Kyousuke also heard it, running through the base aggravated as he knew they would resort to such tactics.

"They're trying to take us down with them, huh?" Kyousuke says to himself annoyed. "Looks like I'll have to hurry." He focused on running primarily, instead of using up more magic by transforming into a bolt of electricity again.

Gajeel also heard it too, and he seemed rather annoyed himself.

"That's just great. What else would you expect from a crazy place like this?" Gajeel says to himself annoyed. He was annoyed, but he wasn't surprised. He just continued searching for Kyousuke, pin-pointing his magic energy and getting closer to him with every second.

* * *

Back at the garden, Gray and Axel stare at Intelon angrily as he starts laughing and sinking into the ground. Axel suddenly was struck with shock as he wondered how Intelon was sinking into the ground like that.

"What the…he's sinking into the metal floor!" Axel states in shock. Gray runs up out of anger, trying to get to him so he can pull him out and get answers from him about the explosion.

"Hey, get back here now!" Gray yells in anger, desperately running to Intelon to get him. However, Intelon completely sunk into the ground before Gray could get to him, causing Gray to stop and look down in anger.

"CRAP! How can he just sink into the ground like that?!" Gray shouts in confusion and frustration. During the moment of frustration for the two, Axel hears footsteps nearby, and turns to see Pantherlily and Levy emerge from the door that Roxanne and Erza destroyed beforehand.

"Hey, who are those two?" Axel asks out of curiosity. Gray turns and notices the two of them, relieved that they came to them just in time. Levy was seen to be the most positive out of the group as of the moment.

"You guys!" Levy says relieved, running alongside Pantherlily who was also relieved. He was rather concerned about the situation at hand.

"Did you hear about the Self-Destruct sequence?" Pantherlily questions, just as Axel and Gray nod in response.

"Yeah, we did. It looks like we only have an hour to get out of here." Axel explains. Pantherlily started to express frustration, but kept it only to a facial expression.

"It's not going to be easy." He states, just as Gray counters that statement.

"Lucy went with some chick to set up a way out of this crazy place. We can go back to where we split up and follow them." Gray explains. Everyone else seemed okay with the idea. Levy was most set on that idea herself.

"That's going to be our best bet if we plan on getting out of here." Levy explains to Pantherlily, who was set on the idea as well.

"Looks like that's our only option!" Pantherlily says. With that, they all turned around and set their sights on getting to Lucy. All they had to do was retrace their steps from the way Axel and Gray came in, and then follow Lucy down the corridor she went into. Now they were set on leaving the place. Erza, Roxanne, Natsu and Dayton were still locating Kyousuke and Gajeel, the latter two locating each other surprisingly. They're not aware of what is to come of their fate.


	26. Chapter 26: You Would Resent Me

**A/N: I've been busy with school and sorts since it has started again, and having CP classes that give you homework nearly everyday is no fun :(**

**Because of such, it has made writing fanfiction difficult for a number of reasons (music, writers block, time management) and because of this it might take time for me to upload chapters to the story. However, there is greatness to this story (not to brag lol). **

**Anyways, hope you enjoy this chapter and have a nice day :)**

Chapter 26: You Would Resent Me

There were only the six wizards that started this whole thing in the base. They were all heading for each other, not realizing where they were actually heading. Kyousuke was already the closest to the center of the base, though he suddenly stopped when a pile of rocks came flying out of the corridor to his left. He covered his face when the debris clouded all his sight for a minute, looking when it cleared up a little bit. Much to his surprise, the exceed that fought Pantherlily was seen in the midst of the debris. He was holding onto the side of the wall as he breathed heavily. He seemed a little beat up from his previous fight, but it doesn't look so bad since a lot of the damage that has been done has healed. He looked up at Kyousuke, giving him a pleased grin while Kyousuke stood there and looked at him surprised. The exceed instantly jumped to the questions.

"I wonder, are you that Kyousuke everyone's been talking about?" The exceed asks with disgust. Kyousuke started at him with a not so pleasant expression on his face, holding his fists to his side as he rubs his mouth while answering.

"If I am, what situation does this bring up?"

"Oh, it brings up many things. You've just became a fallen since betraying us and leaving. "The exceed explains. The negative energy inside Kyousuke was becoming easily influential, but he tried to not let himself get carried away.

"That's funny, coming from you." Kyousuke says with a confused smirk on his face. The exceed looks at him baffled.

"And how is that so?"

"Well…there are many things we're talking about here. First, you weren't even here at the same time I was, so hearing something like that coming from you is surprising. Secondly, this stupid organization has used exceeds as experimental tools; kind of like dolls if you know what I mean." Kyousuke explains. He could already see the seething boil of anger that was ignited inside of the orange exceed. Kyousuke went on. "The real question is: Why are you working for the other side?" Kyousuke asks with an intriguing tone and expression. He gave the exceed an intrigued and perverse look, annoying him even more before the exceed took action.

"I have no interested in telling you such information!" The exceed angrily yells, punching the ground angrily as cracks start spreading out in all directions. They eventually stop, in turn causing the whole ground to crumble apart as the exceed jumps back and waits for Kyousuke to fall in. However, Kyousuke was a step ahead, bolting to the side the exceed is on and quickly punching him in the face. It was enough to push the exceed back a great deal, but he wasn't out. Kyousuke was determined to beat him.

"Time to stop playing games cat; I don't play by the rules." Kyousuke threatens, having a calmer demeanor with a smirk on his face. The exceed, however, gladly accepts the challenge.

"Impressive, but it's not enough!" He shouts, punching Kyousuke straight in the chin with an uppercut. It pulls Kyousuke up into the air for a bit until Kyousuke retorts by grabbing his shoulders and kneeing him in the stomach painfully. He sent electrical energy surging through his body this time which increased the damage, causing the exceed to almost puke a bit. Kyousuke then immediately starts throwing a barrage of punches directly at the exceed's face, watching as his face is sent back and forth from side to side at incredible speed. One last punch to the face is made as it sends the exceed straight into the ground. The exceed hit the ground with enough force to make a noticeable impact in the ground, in the process noticing how serious Kyousuke was on beating him. Kyousuke gave him a serious look during this crazy fight.

"Look, I don't have time to be messing around with you." Kyousuke explains with a serious expression. However, the exceed kicks him right in the side, sending him flying to his left as Kyousuke rolls across the ground. Kyousuke stops rolling and looks up, seeing the exceed flying right up to him using Aera.

"Not fond of battle, ARE YOU?" The exceed says, attempting to provoke Kyousuke as Kyousuke could care less. The exceed sent a punch that was block by Kyousuke, attempting to push through while Kyousuke pushed against. He gave the exceed a sinister smirk in response, still trying to hold back the madness inside of him.

"So you wanna fight me?" Kyousuke says, causing the other exceed to grin in response. "Let's see if you're more of a cat or a kitty!" Kyousuke says, getting up and directly punching the exceed in the face again, moving once more to prepare for another attack.

"You should tell me the name of the guy I'm gonna be pummeling." Kyousuke taunts, just as the exceed responds in the exact same manner.

"You're going to be pummeling? Give me a break. Anyways, the name is Tigerlily." He simply states. Kyousuke stopped for a minute, being surprised by such a name.

"Tigerlily? Sounds like Pantherlily if you ask me."

"Of course it does! I'm his counterpart in this world!" Tigerlily shouts, moving up and attempting to attack Kyousuke again. He fires a barrage of punches as Kyousuke guards with his arms crossed. However, Kyousuke gets hit in the face by Tigerlily again, quickly returning to his senses before he realizes another punch is coming. Kyousuke blocks the punch with one hand and prepares to fight back, throwing another punch at Tigerlily while sweeping him off the ground.

"Is that so?! Let's see if you're full of shit or not!" Kyousuke taunts once again, kneeing Tigerlily and kicking him across the ground. He flies onto his feet as he slides back while preparing to attack. He got up and went straight for Kyousuke as the latter did the same, both hitting each other in the face with a powerful punch. They trembled backwards slowly after the power of the punches and ran up to each other again; Kyousuke quickly getting the upper hand by punching Tigerlily in the chin with an uppercut. He went to punch him in the gut too while at it, elbowing him afterwards and then kicking him in the face too, sending him up in the air as Kyousuke was about to prepare for a final attack. However, Tigerlily used Aera again and flew out of the way, messing up Kyousuke's focus as he quickly flew behind him and got him in a chokehold.

"It's not going to be so easy now is it?" Tigerlily taunts, watching as Kyousuke struggles to break free. Irritated, Kyousuke uses his electricity to shock Tigerlily, it having enough force to force him to let go, as Kyousuke takes advantage of this and throws a second barrage of punches at Tigerlily, beating up on him. Tigerlily tries doing the same, and in doing so they both end up sitting there throwing punches at each other endlessly until they hit each other in the face again. Trembling backwards from the last punch, they stand there and stare at each other while they choose to regain their breath for a moment. Kyousuke looked at Tigerlily and noticed his exhaustion, thinking that he may call it quits.

"What, are you finished yet?" Kyousuke taunts again, annoying Tigerlily as he wouldn't call it quits so easily.

"Do you really think I'd give up so easily? You must be seriously mistaken." Tigerlily explains, getting in battle stance once again as Kyousuke looks at him amused. However, something hit his mind.

"_I can't spend all my time fighting this guy. I need to find out where Gajeel is." _Kyousuke thinks to himself annoyed. He had to find Gajeel, but that wasn't going to be easy with Tigerlily standing in his way. Suddenly, they hear footsteps approaching them. Their attention is shifted to their left as they see someone approaching the two of them slowly. He looked like a smaller figure, and he was approaching the two of them with a confident smirk on his face.

"Intelon?" Tigerlily says in surprise, watching as Intelon walks up slowly and stops. Kyousuke regains his serious expression, eyeing his every move while his fist tightens a bit. He hated him, and he wasn't about to let him screw everything up. Intelon looked at the two with amusement, going on with what he wanted to say.

"Looks like things have taken a turn for the worse. In an hour this base will explode and everything in it will be turned into a pile of rubble." Intelon explains. Tigerlily expressed shock at such a thing but Kyousuke was already aware of it. He was more concerned with what Intelon was doing here. Intelon started speaking right away again. "Looks like I'll have to start cleaning up the mess here." Intelon states while pulling out a white device with a button on it. This guy was always one to have whatever he needed in his arsenal, and he pushed the button.

The latter two watched as Intelon's body started glowing, much like a requip but much more shocking. A black wind circled around his body as some strange purple armor was being formed amongst his body. It was thick and strong, and it covered nearly his entire body with the exception of his head. In the process he gained muscle expansion as a result, and became physically stronger in order to withstand the power of the armor. The latter two stared at Intelon in shock at what he had done, and Intelon smirked in delight.

"Those priceless expressions are worth something to remember. Too bad you'll have to die so that my plans can work out as planned."

"Die?!" Tigerlily says in shock. He didn't understand what he meant by that. Suddenly, Intelon fires a large blast of yellow energy directly at Tigerlily, blasting him into a nearby wall with extreme force. Kyousuke watches in complete shock as Tigerlily is blasted into the wall; a giant hole being blasted through his body as he hits a wall painfully. Intelon ecstatically blasts him again, watching as Tigerlily was blasted through the wall in extreme pain, falling down into the madness room with extreme force as Kyousuke looked at Tigerlily in complete shock. Angry, he turned directly at Intelon who was looking at him with a crazy expression on his face.

"You're turn." Intelon simply states. However, Kyousuke quickly sprints up to him and covers his fist in electricity, punching Intelon in the face as it sends him flying backwards. Kyousuke looked at him with a stern, but angry look as he was about to attack him again.

"You psychopath!" Kyousuke yells angrily, running up to Intelon again to take him out. Intelon, while flying back, looks behind him to suddenly see Erza pop out of one of the rooms. Turns out she saw Intelon too, as she was about to attack him and take him out.

"I will end you once and for all!" Erza screams, running up to him and preparing to take him out. Looking in-front of him, he sees Kyousuke angrily rushing up to him with his chokuto like Erza is, and he uses this to his advantage. Suddenly disappearing, the latter two clash with each other in sudden surprise as they both look at each other stunned. Erza was more surprised to run into Kyousuke than anything.

"Kyousuke, it's you!" Erza says, both clashing with each other as Kyousuke looks at her with a serious expression. Their attention suddenly turns to Intelon who appears to their right.

"Whew, that was a close one." Intelon says in relief. "Too bad I won't be able to use that again for a while." Erza and Kyousuke backed away from each other, both focusing their attention on Intelon as he notices Roxanne coming out of the corridor too. He became rather surprised at their appearance. "Well then, three against one. Sounds a bit unfair, but I'll manage with ease."

"I wouldn't think someone like you would do such wicked things to people!" Erza says angrily. Kyousuke was also angry at Intelon, but he wondered why Erza was there too. It kind of annoyed him a bit. Erza looked at Intelon despicably as anger filled her up like a balloon. She couldn't forgive him for what he had done. "You just don't stop, do you?!" Erza says angrily, staring at him with a disgusted glare in her eyes. Intelon was laughing underneath his exterior, looking at Erza amusingly as he taunts her all over again.

"Scraps like you are nothing to give up on; I've got everything necessary to beat you."

"You will never beat me!" Erza says angrily, drawing her sword and quickly running up to him. She slashed first, attempting to take him down right away, but was stopped as Intelon simply blocked the attack with the purple armor. Roxanne watched in surprise, turning and looking at Kyousuke who had a serious expression on his face. It was that same expression, except much more prominent. She could feel his magic presence though, and she could tell that it was dark as she would've expected. However, she also sensed underlying affection in his energy; something that made her overly shocked.

"_The dark energy is something I would've been ready for a long time ago, but this caring energy. No…it's not care. More of like slight affection or…"_ She thought to herself of what it could possibly be. "_Is it…..admiration? It doesn't feel like it. He's not the type to admire too many people. It might be a high level of respect or…infatuation with someone. If that is the case, who would it be?_" Roxanne thought to herself deeply. She couldn't understand this at all, and she wondered why Kyousuke would ever feel this way. She thought of the time she admired the potent appearance and feeling Erza gave off at the time. Shock spiraled through her as she quickly turned to Kyousuke, who went off to attack Intelon in the process. She analyzed the feeling again and this time, it felt much more torn. Thinking about everything that happened during the course of events, she remembered what happened between her and Kyousuke, and then remembered the things that have happened between him and Gajeel, in which he seemed to open up to more. She then realized that the same thing happened between her and Erza, and how Erza had affected her this time around.

As she was figuring out the real reason why they had met up, Kyousuke and Erza were attacking Intelon. Kyousuke didn't seem to care too much about Erza joining up in the fight, but he had an intention of making sure he was the one who killed Intelon in the end. The purple armor was quite a tough cookie though; not only was it a strong defense, but it proved its own might offensively as well. It fired yellow laser blasts that were powerful enough to blow holes into people if enough power was applied (such as Tigerlily), and blocking them required enough effort to control the direction of the laser when rejecting it. Getting through the armor first was going to be necessary before they have any chance of damaging Intelon at this point. Intelon, though, was enjoying their 'pointless' attempts at beating him.

"Why resist? I'm going to come out on top anyway."

"I don't think so." Kyousuke says annoyed. Having to get through the armor made things worse and since the base was going to explode, it made matters worse. Most of them were still split up and they may get themselves all killed if they did the wrong things. Intelon struck Kyousuke a surprised expression, going off about how his armor is so great.

"This armor is made out of the materials and research that my own brother made; the very same man you killed." Intelon explains. Erza, overhearing the conversation, looked at Kyousuke in shock. Kyousuke continued to stare at Intelon with a serious expression, not daring to look Erza in the eye. She remembered how Kyousuke was once a member of the D-Raided, and she quickly jumped to questioning him on such.

"Kyousuke! You need to tell me everything that happened when you were here!" Erza says desperately. Kyousuke, becoming rather irritated, turns his eyes towards Erza, giving her a polarizing stare.

"The answer is no. I'm not gonna tell you what I did here back then so you should just _get over it_." Kyousuke says in a cold demeanor. Erza only got more frustrated and angrily demanded that he tell her.

"I don't care what you think! This is a life or death situation Kyousuke! Tell me right now!" Erza yells angrily, earning no response from Kyousuke. He just angrily stared at her, giving the vibe that says, "_Back off now_." Erza was appalled by his response and yet still demanded that she know of what happened, which Kyousuke was still reluctant to tell the truth. Intelon decided to take advantage of this and fired two yellow laser-beams at the two, which were easily dodged. Roxanne still watched and observed the fight while trying to figure out why the Fairy Tail mages ended up here anyway. Kyousuke kept dodging the beams, waiting for an opening to land an attack whereas Erza requipped into her Black Wing armor and flew up to try to destroy the armor. Intelon casually raised his arm to block the attack, watching as the sword hit the armor and cracked part of it open. Turning to the arm in shock, it started oozing out yellow liquid that hit the ground and started to melt rock. Looking back up at Erza with rage, he saw her coming in to crack the armor again, only to blast a green laser beam directly at her. Roxanne watched as the sword was blasted out of Erza's hand and she hit the ground and tumbled across.

"Erza!" Roxanne shouts. She was about to run over to her as Erza got back up on her feet once again. She was about to attack Intelon again, but stopped in her tracks, surprising everyone else in the process. Roxanne looked at her with surprise and confusion.

"Wha…wha…why did you stop?" Roxanne asks in confusion, watching as Erza looks at her hands and the rest of her body; perplexed herself.

"That's strange; it's like the laser had no effect." Erza says confused, thinking that there might be something else to the equation. Intelon only smirked as everyone else looked at her confused, watching as Erza's armor suddenly vanished. Widening her eyes in shock, she watched as she was pulled up into some strange white portal feet first, slowly being sucked in as Kyousuke and Roxanne watch in shock, the latter rushing over to help her. She managed to grab ahold of Erza's arms as she was being sucked in, but the force of the portal was very strong. Intelon watched her in amusement, taking note of her own dedication to her own counterpart.

"It seems that Roxanne is quite loyal to her indeed. So Kyousuke…" He says, looking at Kyousuke while receiving a disgusted look, "care to tell me how things are going between you and Gajeel?"

"I didn't come here to talk about personal relationships; I came here to kick your ass." Kyousuke says bluntly, Intelon not being surprised. They both turned and watched as Erza was still being sucked in, Roxanne desperately trying to pull her out of it. However, the portal felt as if its strength on Erza was increasing, making it increasingly difficult for Roxanne.

"The portal's getting stronger; I can't manage for much longer!"

"You have to keep trying!" Erza shouts as she has no control over her own body. Suddenly, Roxanne is forced to dodge a yellow laser that is fired from Intelon, watching as Intelon is grinning in amusement as he turns to counter Kyousuke's Electric Dragon's Talon. In complete shock, she turns to Erza as her last moments here are being realized.

"ERZA!" Roxanne screams, watching as Erza is being sucked into the portal.

"ERZA!" Roxanne hears, looking around shocked for a minute and then looking back at Erza. Surprised, she sees Natsu grabbing Erza with all his might and pulling her out of the portal. Erza's eyes widened in shock and surprise as she felt Natsu's arms grab her and pull her out of the portal; Roxanne feeling the same way as she stared at Natsu in shock.

"It's okay Erza, I got you." Natsu says in a comforting voice. Having pulled her out of the portal, Intelon looks at him in anger as he doesn't realize someone approaching him from behind. Feeling an increasing amount of magic energy, both Intelon and Roxanne turn around and see Dayton attacking Intelon. He uses his Lava Dragon's Roar, managing to catch Intelon off guard as he is hit with the roar. It managed to weaken his armor enough to make it easier to damage. Suffering from the burning effects of the Lava, Intelon looked at Dayton angrily as he jumped over to everyone else's side. He happened to land next to Kyousuke, who looked at him with a serious glare as Dayton also looked at him with a serious expression on his face. He immediately jumped to the same thing Erza did.

"You can't hide it forever."

"I will always hide it from you." Kyousuke says bitterly, causing Dayton to react angrily.

"Being a member of the D-Raided is one thing, but keeping the truth from everyone that cares about you is something else!"

"Don't give me that crap!" Kyousuke says angrily, receiving a shocked response from Dayton, "You know just as well as I do that you would've never trusted me and you know that everyone else would feel the same way." Kyousuke explains angrily. Erza got up angrily and started yelling herself.

"That's not true. You…" Erza starts to say before stopping in her tracks. She suddenly remembered her resentment for Gajeel when he suddenly became a Fairy Tail member, and how she would've never trusted him. She angrily clenched her fists as she looked down at the ground angrily. "_Dammit! He's right! At this rate we'll never find out the truth about him." _Erza thinks to herself angrily. Natsu looked at Erza suddenly confused, and looked at Kyousuke angrily while Dayton just stood there, staring at Kyousuke angrily too. Roxanne, however, felt the same way Erza did. Intelon, watching their scuffling with each other enjoyably, decided to take action and attack them. He fired more yellow lasers as everyone turned their attention to them. Dodging them and moving out of the way, they looked at Intelon with serious stares.

"Looks like I have five mages to wipe off the map." Intelon says cockily. The five looked at Intelon, not only having a battle with him but a battle with Kyousuke in revealing the truth about himself. This is also when things got out of control.


	27. Chapter 27: Kyousuke's Will

Chapter 27: Kyousuke's Will

Here we have Zawisza and Lucy working on a way to start up a large helicopter in order to plan their escape. Lucy was surprised at what the helicopter was and yet still doesn't know how they're going to use it because Zawisza is rushing them. Lucy is currently helping Zawisza move the helicopter into position in order to leave the base. They had to use the equipment around them in order to suspend the helicopter off the ground and move it under the opening in the roof of the building. It would open up outwards like a pair of doors and the helicopter would fly up onto the ground. They managed to do so as Lucy took a breath of relief and Zawisza was onto her next task.

"Man, this is so much harder than it looks." Lucy says out of breath. Zawisza didn't pay too much attention to her as she was too focused on the helicopter.

"It's either this or we get blasted to pieces by that explosion."

"You know, you don't have to make it so dramatic." Lucy says anxiously. The way Zawisza said it made her fear of such shoot up, and it wasn't a good thing at all. She walked over to help her out with what she needed to do next, only to hear a group of footsteps echo throughout the area. Both Lucy and Zawisza went on-guard.

"Who was that?!" Zawisza says defensively, only to notice that it's Gray, Axel, Pantherlily, Happy, and Levy. Lucy's expression became vividly grateful.

"You guys!" She says, relieved that they're alright. Both groups run up to each other as Levy and Lucy have their little reunion with each other. Happy also happens to be there too, so Natsu and Dayton must've met up with the group with Natsu and Dayton heading for Gajeel afterwards without Happy, who was going to help out the rest of the group. Pantherlily immediately jumped to the task at hand.

"So, what sort of plan do you have on getting out of this place?" He asks, Zawisza showing all of them the helicopter. They all stared at it in awe, looking at its large size yet wondering what it was.

"Whoa, what the heck is that thing?!" Gray says astonished, just as Zawisza goes on to explain.

"It's a helicopter. With it, we can fly out of this base and gain enough distance in time before the explosion happens." Zawisza explains which surprises everyone, yet at the same time, makes them feel more confident in being able to escape this place.

"The ceiling will open up as a door so the helicopter can get onto the ground outside of this base. We're going to have to move quickly though, since we don't have a ton of time on our hands." Zawisza explains. Everyone agreed on helping Zawisza out, since everyone else is going to be rushing back in extreme horror as they try to board so everyone can fly out of this base before it blows to bits. Levy could be the brains behind this situation, but it would still require a lot of physical involvement with this helicopter too. Happy wondered about how Natsu was doing, worrying about him a bit but still having faith in him.

* * *

Back to that, Natsu, Dayton, Erza, Roxanne and Kyousuke were all up fighting Intelon, in which the odds weren't in Intelon's favor. On top of that, Intelon's armor was weakened and any time now Gajeel could appear too, so Intelon had to have a miracle happen if he wanted a good chance at beating them. Unfortunately he did, and he casted a secondary level of armor that was equipped within it.

"Armor Requip: Level Two Formation!" He chants, catching everyone's attention as they watch the armor change. The weakened purple armor was regaining its strength, and in the process it was also getting more powerful. His muscle mass also continued to increase, gaining more strength in an unhealthy way. Natsu and Dayton watched in complete awkwardness.

"Holy crap! He's getting bigger!" Natsu shouts completely stumped.

"And his armor is also changing color too!" Dayton says shocked, just as everyone else watches in shock. Eventually its formation was complete, and it was two times bigger than the original armor. His stature would have to be around Erza's height times three. Natsu and Dayton looked at it astonished, having become the twins of dumbness.

"Holy crap! That's so cool!" Natsu and Dayton shout out excitedly, only receiving awkward, perplexed stares from Erza and Roxanne and angry rants from Kyousuke.

"Give me a break; that's not cool!" Kyousuke says angrily as the two just keep staring at the armor. Intelon started complaining himself.

"What, it's not supposed to be cool! You're supposed to be scared of it! Like this!" Intelon shouts angrily, firing a larger yellow laser beam at the two, who manage to dodge it in the nick of time. It blasts a larger part of the ground apart (only 50% more) as Erza and Roxanne take note of the larger blast size. Natsu and Dayton are on guard, ready to fight ASAP.

"Oh yeah," Natsu says confidently, "Well I ain't scared of you or your armor. I'm gonna burn you down to a pile of ashes!"

"Is that so? Let's see your pathetic dragon flames try this time." Intelon brags, firing more yellow lasers as his attention is focused on Natsu. Natsu runs around dodging the lasers as he tries to look for an opening to attack while Dayton goes around trying to break the armor with his Lava enhanced fists. Punching one of the legs, he ends up hurting his hand instead.

"OW OW OW OW OOOWWW! That hurts!" Dayton says, jumping around holding his hand painfully as Kyousuke, Roxanne and Erza look at him with annoyed expressions.

"You idiot." They all say in sync, watching as Dayton continues to jump around in pain. Kyousuke, however, makes the first effective attack by firing a stream of electricity connected to his chokuto. Using it as a whip, he slashes the armor in hopes of making an impact on it. However, they're only slight dents and it'll take him a while to actually crack the armor again. Intelon just laughs at Kyousuke's attempts.

"Such a pointless tactic; you may as well give up now." He says, watching as Kyousuke keeps trying to break through the armor.

"You should be smart enough to know that I ain't giving up anytime soon." Kyousuke says confidently, taking his chokuto and slashing the armor with a powerful strike. Intelon only became irritated, having to deal with three 'pests' that kept trying to break through his armor. Watching the group, Erza decides to join in with them as well. However, Roxanne, having finally realized something, stops her.

"Wait!" Roxanne says, catching Erza's attention as she stopped and turned to her.

"What is it?"

"I think I may have finally figured out why you guys ended up here." Roxanne explains, causing Erza to look at her shocked.

"You have?! What do you think it is?!" Erza says shocked, standing there as Roxanne goes on to explain.

"Okay, if my memory serves me, this world was once one and the same with your world, as Earthland is known to be a magic world. Due to supernatural space-time conflictions, a part of the world was split from yours and made this world, which over-time became what it is today. How there are connections between us is what I don't know, but I am assuming is that this world lost a severe amount of magic power in the process of the splitting." Roxanne explains, Erza listening in astonishment. She began to pick up on it right away.

"If that's the case, are you saying that this world transported us here in order to compensate for its loss in magic power?"

"That's exactly what I'm saying. The problem is though is that we can't head back to the other world until we find out what is causing the issue here and stop it." Roxanne says in doubt. Erza was also plunged into doubt about such an issue. The cause may be a supernatural cause that is inevitable and they may never be able to return home. As the two are discussing matters, Intelon notices their frozen movements and takes aim at the two of them.

"A perfect target!" Intelon says, firing a yellow beam at the two mages.

"Erza, look out!" Natsu shouts, just as Roxanne and Erza dodge the laser in the nick of time. Erza requips into her Heaven's Wheel armor so that she can destroy the armor.

"Now is not the best time to talk about that. What we need to be focusing on right now is how to beat him and his armor." Erza explains, just as Roxanne nods in response. Deciding to finally join the fight, she requips into her GKX-1500 Magic Amplifier, surprising Intelon in the process.

"_This should give me the upper-hand." _Roxanne thinks to herself confidently. Intelon started to laugh a bit in response to the glove.

"Such a fool you are; you really think that's going to make an impact on this armor?"

"I don't think; I know." Roxanne says confidently, jumping up and directly punching the chest of the armor with brute force. She wasn't the strongest when it came to hand-to-hand combat, but she was smart with her fighting. The glove morphed into a giant robotic one, and she hit the chest of Intelon's armor directly. Outputting major amounts of magic power, she was able to blast the armor inward, causing it to concave and crack to pieces. Intelon watched in terror as Roxanne blasted the armor, smiling confidently while doing so.

"How's that for a glove?" Roxanne jokingly says. Natsu and Dayton freaked out a bit over her power (she can be scary you know). Smiles were on everyone else's faces except for Kyousuke, who looked at the situation with a serious expression, and Intelon, who was horrified that his armor was broken. His horror turned into sudden rage.

"Damn you girl! You're gonna pay for this!" He yells angrily, putting one arm directly in-front of her as he was about to blast her at point blank range. Luckily, Dayton grabbed her and jumped out of the way, spinning around as he landed with her and set her down on the ground. Just as Intelon turns to Dayton's direction, he jumps in front of Intelon and prepares an attack that'll take him down with ease. Roxanne looks at him with concern.

"Dayton, what are you doing?!"

"I'm gonna take this guy down!" Dayton shouts, ready to do so as everyone has their attention on him. "Lava Dragon Slayer's Secret Art!" He shouts, surprising everyone, especially Kyousuke.

"A Secret Art?!" Erza says astonished. Natsu only smiled as he packed his fists together; Roxanne and Kyousuke both looking at him surprised. Vermillion energy started surrounding him as a Vermillion magic circle appeared underneath him. His magical energy was increasing by a major amount, as he was ready to take this guy out. This is where the surprise is seen. Vermillion energy coated Dayton's hands as he was twirling them around in circles like a vortex. Intelon watched in confusion as he thought Dayton wouldn't be able to pull this off.

"Don't waste your energy. It's useless!"

"Oh YEAH?! We'll see about that!" Dayton shouts angrily, ready to use the technique.

"_Crimson Lotus_: Erupting Lava Cannon!" Daytons shouts. With that, a large amount of lava fires straight up from the ground like an upwards waterfall, heading directly for Intelon as he becomes engulfed within the burning liquid. It suddenly heads straight for the area Roxanne managed to damage, hitting it with extreme force as it cracks even more. The armor starts to melt off of Intelon just as the cracks become more prominent. It eventually becomes a tornado of lava that just burns the armor and nearly liquefies it, forcing all of its energy into that little point like a drill. It soon dissipates afterwards as Dayton finalizes the spell. Having successfully cast the spell, Dayton falls to his knees as his magic energy was drained quite a lot. Intelon looked at his armor in horror as even this level of armor wasn't enough to stop the group.

"_How is this even possible?! My research has always proved to be correct no matter what the circumstances. What are these mages up to? How can they defy the years of research I have put in developing this vast, powerful armor?!" _Intelon thinks to himself in horror. This horror, however, soon turned to rage once again. However, it was sort of like he was becoming enraged himself. "_How dare they?! I will make every single one of those worthless mages pay the price! They will never live to regret it!" _He thinks to himself angrily. He then quickly decides to pull off the final level of the armor. "LEVEL THREE RE…"

"NOT TODAY!" Kyousuke yells angrily, throwing his chokuto with brute force into the center of the initial crack. An angry Intelon turns his attention to Kyousuke, looking at him in outrage.

"HOW DARE YOU!"

"Electric Dragon's: Laser Lance!" Kyousuke shouts angrily. Putting his hands side-by-side and putting them out in-front of him, an electric-blue magic circle is made in which a large bundle of laser lances come flying out at Intelon. As they all manage to hit the crack and the center of Kyousuke's chokuto, he forces the armor to break apart permanently, causing numerous more cracks to appear in the armor. Putting all his energy into it, the armor eventually shatters apart and explodes, causing a large explosion to cover everyone's vision as there's nothing but smoke and the odor of disgusting liquids oozing from the armor.

"Eww, what is that?!" Natsu says disgusted, Dayton also plugging his nose.

"I don't know but it's _so _nasty!" Dayton says disgusted. Just as the smoke clears up, Intelon can be seen lying down on the ground helplessly. Kyousuke sees his chokuto flying in the air and manages to grab it as it comes flying back to him, heading straight towards Intelon with a deadly stare in his eyes afterwards. Intelon was enraged at this point, but helplessly enraged at that. He was on the ground and he was a prime target, and he had no means of defense anymore (or did he)? The armor was destroyed to bits and there was nothing left but piles of rubble from the armor. The announcer for the bomb alert announced that there would be 20 minutes left until the explosion of the base occurred. Only Kyousuke wasn't bothered by such. Walking up to Intelon, he stood above him just as he was about to eliminate him. Everyone else wasn't completely sure of what he was going to do, but Intelon was afraid that he might kill him. Because of such, he quickly put his hands to the ground and quickly casted a spell.

"ORB MAGIC: TURTLE TIME!" He yells angrily. Suddenly, everything moves slowly for everyone else but him. Kyousuke angrily gave him a deadly look and prepared to kill him. However, his movement was very slow because of the spell. Just as everyone else looks at Intelon in shock, he starts pulling out some strange beige colored goo and starts stretching it out. Suddenly, upon finishing, he released the spell using Turtle Time Repel. It returned the speed of time back to normal, but in the process sent everyone else flying backwards. Intelon focuses his attention on Kyousuke, knowing that he was in the madness room beforehand. Kyousuke, pulling his head up and shaking his head, looks up and sees Intelon preparing to fire the liquid. Kyousuke tries to move, but is restricted because of the side effects of the spell. Everyone else wasn't nearly as affected because they weren't as close to the spell caster as Kyousuke was.

"Dammit! I can't move!" Kyousuke says angrily, turning his attention to Intelon as the latter prepares to fire the liquid at Kyousuke. He had an ecstatic expression on his face as he was on the verge of victory.

"Looks like it's time to say goodbye! You're all mine!" Intelon screams, using his orb magic to make the liquid become a beam that will penetrate Kyousuke. Everyone else watches in rising fear as Kyousuke helplessly lies there, just as the beam comes heading straight for him.

"It's heading directly for him!" Erza states, everyone else watching in horror. They wouldn't have been able to save him in time from the position they were in.

"KYOUSUKE!" Roxanne screams, watching in terror as the beam nearly comes in contact with Kyousuke.

Before it does, though, a figure jumps out in-front of Kyousuke, taking the hit as he raises his arm and lets it hit his arm. Everyone's attention is shifted to the figure as Intelon looks at it with slight surprise. It turns out it was none other than Gajeel himself, just in time, or perhaps not. Everyone looks at him surprised as he suddenly just appeared out of the blue.

"It's Gajeel!" Roxanne says relieved and surprised, just as the others stare at him surprised. Natsu only gained a smile on his face.

"And just in time too!" He says cheerfully. Kyousuke looked up at Gajeel with a shocked expression on his face. Gajeel turned to Kyousuke with a grin on his face, happy that he could be there in time.

"Didn't think I was gonna be here, did ya?" Gajeel says with a grin. Kyousuke just kept a shocked face, horrified because he did that for some reason.

"No…..I didn't." Kyousuke says in shock. Intelon started grinning in an evil way, Gajeel only becoming confused and annoyed at Kyousuke.

"What's your problem?" Gajeel asks annoyed, just as everyone else looks at Kyousuke confused. Why did he have that expression on his face?

"Why did you do that?" Kyousuke asks in a soft voice, Gajeel looking at him confused.

"Huh? What are you tal…"

"Why did you do that?! That thing you just blocked takes control of you through your own madness!" Kyousuke explains in shock. That very minute shock spiraled through everyone, just as Gajeel turns around quickly before it takes effect. In an instant, Gajeel starts screaming in pain uncontrollably. The substance entered his body and was working its way through in order to control him. Everyone else watched in horror, Kyousuke being the most horrified. Roxanne started screaming out for him.

"GAJEEL! What's happening to you?!" Roxanne screams as he continues to sit there, screaming in endless pain. Natsu suddenly becomes pissed, turning to Intelon and charging for him.

"YOU BASTARD! WHAT DID YOU DO TO HIM?!" Natsu screams, charging for Intelon as Intelon just fires a barrage of red orbs at Natsu. Natsu is blasted back into the wall painfully as Gajeel still suffers, everyone else watching in horror. Erza, watching in horror, angrily yells at Intelon in response.

"How could you?! THIS IS UNFORGIVABLE!" Erza says angrily, quickly requipping into her Black Wing armor and hatefully charging directly for Intelon. Intelon just continued blabbering about what will happen.

"He'll become one of mine!"

"SCREW YOU!" Erza screams angrily, charging for Intelon as he simply dodges her.

"He's the perfect psycho for my control!"

"DAMN YOU ASSHOLE!" Kyousuke says hatefully. He could see that as Gajeel was dealing with the pain, his muscles began to rapidly expand and contract, like some nasty virus was going through him. Kyousuke only became more pissed, and he and Dayton charged directly for Intelon at this very same moment.

"THIS KIND OF CRAP IS TAKING IT TOO FAR!" Dayton screams, just as both Kyousuke and Dayton prepare for a dual roar.

"I'll decide what is too far! He'll be my puppet, and that's all that matters to me!" Intelon shouts ecstatically. Gajeel is still there screaming in pain, holding onto his head as he moves all around trying to make it quit. During the suffering, he sees everyone fighting for him, trying to take revenge. Seeing Kyousuke and Dayton; seeing the tears from Roxanne, seeing Erza and Natsu take damage. They all cared about him, and it made him feel good on the inside. While Gajeel was dealing with the pain, Kyousuke and Dayton fired an Electric Lava Dragon's Roar that Intelon couldn't dodge. He tried defending it using Yellow wax orbs, but it ultimately failed as he was blasted back against the wall. Having been weakened, Intelon helplessly fell to the ground as Natsu came and picked him up from his shirt. You could see how angry Natsu was, and he was _pissed_. He burned Intelon alive, forcing him to tell him how to stop it.

"TELL ME RIGHT NOW! HOW DO YOU STOP THIS CRAP?!" Natsu screams angrily. Intelon was being burned alive as Erza ran over and helped interrogate him, just as Kyousuke and Dayton turned around. Roxanne ran over to help out Gajeel, but stopped when she realized that the bumps on him stopped swelling. He was still screaming in pain, but it wasn't there anymore. Dayton and Kyousuke saw it too.

"Do you see that?"

"Yeah, I do." Kyousuke says upsettingly. Things didn't seem good for him at all. Roxanne watched as Gajeel slowly stopped screaming, only to be seen panting heavily as he was regaining his breath. Natsu and Erza also turned to look at Gajeel, having stopped burning Intelon alive. Covered in burn marks, Intelon knew that the process was finally over. Roxanne just stood there; Kyousuke knowing exactly what's going to happen.

"ROXANNE! GET AWAY FROM HIM! HE'S DANGEROUS!" Kyousuke screams fearfully as Roxanne just stands there. Just as Gajeel becomes silent, he turns a deadly eye to Roxanne. His pure red snake-like eye; it penetrated her like a knife to the heart. She took a step back as she covered her mouth in horror, paralyzed in fear.

"Oh god." She says to herself, trembling in fear and horror as Gajeel stands up on his feet. Everyone stares at him; fearful of what's to happen next as Gajeel suddenly starts increasing his magic power output. A large pressure force is felt from his magic, putting everyone in a state of shock as he suddenly stops. He quickly looks up, having those sharp penetrating eyes that are quickly accompanied with a devilish grin. He suddenly takes off, appearing before Dayton and Kyousuke before they could even realize it. Right when they do, he blasts them into the wall with extreme force. They were sent flying with enough speed to destroy school buildings. It was enough to cause them to cough up a bit of blood, just as Gajeel turned his attention to Erza, Natsu, and Intelon. Intelon was grinning, but Natsu and Erza were horrified.

"Gajeel! What are you doing?!" Erza shouts in shock. Gajeel actually responds in his madness state.

"I want to make Salamander pay. I didn't enjoy the way he beat me in our last fight." Gajeel says sadistically, grinning ecstatically as Natsu looks at him in complete confusion.

"GAJEEL! What the heck are you do…" Natsu says, before realizing that Gajeel is face to face with him. Just as he is, Erza and Roxanne turn to Natsu and Gajeel in horror before Gajeel grabs Natsu and slams him into the ground. Erza screams at him, panicking over the situation.

"GAJEEL! STOP THIS NOW!" Erza screams, just as Gajeel uses his Iron Dragon's Club and forces her onto the wall, dragging her body for a bit before letting her go. She fell to the ground helplessly, covered in bruises. Natsu became extremely mad, but he had no chance against Gajeel at this point.

"GAJEEL!" Natsu screams, only earning sadistic chuckles from Gajeel. He throws him up in the air and uses his Iron Dragon's Club to his face. Erza quickly got up and watched in horror what Gajeel did to torture Natsu.

"How's that SALAMANDER! You ain't beating me this time!" Gajeel screams sadistically. Intelon grinned as he thought he gained the upper-hand. Roxanne watched horrified, knowing that if she got herself involved she would be beaten to a pulp. Intelon, losing his mind, tried to tell Gajeel what to do.

"Gajeel! Take them all out at once!" Intelon commanded.

"Huh?" Gajeel said, turning to him. He gave Intelon a disgusted look as Intelon looked at him in fear. Gajeel had already wanted to toss him in the trash. "I ain't taking orders from some four-eyed chump. GET LOST!" Gajeel shouted angrily, taking Intelon and piercing him with his Iron Dragon's Sword. Everyone else got up and watched in horror as Gajeel simply threw Intelon into the ground; blood dripping from the sword. The sword strike caused a fatal injury with Intelon as he started dying.

"Damn you Gajeel! You were supposed to be under my command!" Intelon says with all his strength. However, Gajeel just ignores him and steps on him, killing him as everyone else watches in horror. Intelon secretly knew that Gajeel's madness was too much to be controlled. On the other hand, Dayton and Kyousuke had opposite reactions.

"He killed him! Holy crap!" Dayton says in shock, only for Kyousuke to not care.

"Yeah, so what? I'm actually glad that fucker is finally dead. He deserved to pay the price." Kyousuke says bluntly. Besides that, the horror really started when Gajeel targeted Roxanne. Terror shot into her heart as Gajeel aimed for her.

"Well she looks interesting. Let's see how good of a punching bag she is." Gajeel says popping his neck and arms. Roxanne got on guard as she requipped her GKX-1500 Magic Amplifier, staring into his creepy eyes and the devilish grin he had glued to his face. Erza and Natsu saw and started screaming when they saw Gajeel prepare to attack with his Iron Dragon's Sword again.

"GAJEEL! STOP THIS! YOU'RE GOING TO KILL HER!" Erza screamed, but to no avail.

"ROXANNE! GET OUT OF THE WAY!" Natsu screamed desperately. Roxanne's determination and confidence emptied with every inch that Gajeel got closer. Her eyes widened and her heart broke. His eyes shot through her like knives. She was going to be killed by the same man that helped her out.

"NOOOO!" Both Natsu and Erza scream, just as Gajeel is about to penetrate Roxanne with the sword. However, right at that moment, Kyousuke quickly bolts to Roxanne, appearing in-front of Gajeel as he uses his Electric Dragon's Z-Force to stop him. He forced more magical energy into it so that it acted as more of a pressurized blast than an internally damaging attack. Gajeel was pushed back a great distance from Roxanne, but he wasn't damaged too much. Gajeel only chuckled as Kyousuke quickly ran up to Gajeel, attempting to land an electricity-enhanced punch to the face. However, he couldn't land it as his attack was stopped and Gajeel punched Kyousuke in the face instead. He then was kneed in the chest by Gajeel and then kicked into the wall painfully. Kyousuke spun in the air as he hit the wall with brute force, falling down to the ground and coughing up blood painfully. He became increasingly frustrated.

"_Dammit! I can't stop him at all. It's like I'm holding myself back!" _He thought to himself angrily. In truth, he couldn't focus. The stress of Gajeel's situation is what was making it so difficult for him to concentrate. Had Levy saw this, she would've cried. Gajeel didn't even think about her though as his madness was in control of him. This wasn't the crazy, insane Roxanne who couldn't control her speech patterns; it was the psychotic, out of control monster known as Gajeel Redfox. Kyousuke knew he had to do something, watching as Dayton prepared to attack.

"GAJEEL!" Dayton shouted, charging at Gajeel with a powerful technique up his sleeve. However, Gajeel just knees him in the chest and Dayton's sent flying in Kyousuke's direction. Gajeel felt really bored now, being upset at how weak everyone else was.

"Give me a break; is this all you've got? You're just a bunch of scumbags." Gajeel taunts, laughing a bit as Natsu takes off at Gajeel.

"GAJEEL! STOP THIS RIGHT NOW!" Natsu screams. Gajeel turns to 'Salamander' who is quickly approaching him.

"Looks like Salamander wants to play." Gajeel says to himself while grinning. He changed into his Iron Dragon Scales, further increasing his power as Natsu prepares to hit him with a powerful Fire Dragon's Roar. It hits Gajeel as Natsu hopes to use it as a cover for his secondary attack. However, it didn't affect Gajeel too much, nor did it stop him from grabbing Natsu's fist from Natsu's second attack. Erza watched the whole thing in shock.

"NOOO!" She screamed, watching as Gajeel punched Natsu right in the stomach and used his Iron Dragon's Hard Fist. It sent Natsu flying into the wall again; his stomach turning purple from the major impact from the punch and him coughing up blood too. He became too weakened physically to get up without putting himself in fatal condition. Erza watched in horror, turning her attention back to Gajeel as he just continued laughing sadistically.

"_This madness; he's gone completely insane. Just how powerful is he?!_" Erza thinks to herself in horror. Roxanne watched in horror too, not being able to do anything without getting herself possibly killed. Yet, she couldn't help the urge to call out to him.

"Gajeel!" Roxanne shouts, catching his attention as well as Erza's. He looks to her with an annoyed look.

"What do you want?" He says, quickly thinking about beating her up. "You wanna get pounded or what?" He says, walking slowly over to her. Erza watches in shock, not knowing what Roxanne was really doing.

"Roxanne?! What the hell are you doing?! He could kill you!" Erza shouts in fear. However, Roxanne didn't listen to her, and she kept talking to Gajeel.

"Gajeel, I want you to go back to normal." Roxanne says, just as Gajeel keeps walking towards her. He chuckled a bit before responding.

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"I'm talking about the Gajeel that had a sense of honor, the Gajeel that had a heart, the Gajeel that helped me! You told me that Kyousuke still had a chance. You told me that you wouldn't try to kill Natsu or Dayton, and you wouldn't hurt someone for no reason!" Roxanne said. She started to cry, tears pouring down her face as Gajeel slowed down and stopped. Erza watched too, being completely shocked at what Roxanne had said. She would've never thought Gajeel would care for Kyousuke so much. She would've never thought he helped Roxanne out. She widened her eyes a bit in surprise and shock, her throat tightening a bit. She almost started to cry herself, and it was over Gajeel of all people. Roxanne kept talking Gajeel out of this. "You have to stop okay? You have to help us out. You need to be there for us again!" Roxanne shouts, tears pouring from her eyes. Gajeel was looking at her in shock, for this being the real Gajeel once again.

Kyousuke also watched in shock, never thinking that Roxanne would've said things like that. She proved that Gajeel cared about him, and it put a weight on his chest. Kyousuke was crying on the inside, and he couldn't take it anymore. He was tired of resenting everyone, and now he was going to go into his open arms. Gajeel, hearing the whole thing, suddenly started screaming in pain again. The madness wasn't done with him, and it was trying to take control once again. Roxanne watched in shock while Erza started running to him.

"GAJEEL!" She screamed, running over to help him. However, it was too late, and Gajeel became a psychopath again. He tried to kill Roxanne once again but was stopped by Erza quickly rushing up to him and blocking his attack, still being in her Black Wing armor. It was him and her face-to-face, both staring each other in the eyes as a tear or two poured down Erza's face.

"Gajeel…please stop this. We're you're friends, and we care about you." Erza says, smiling while the tear poured. Gajeel looked at her with widened eyes, becoming speechless. However, this was interrupted when Kyousuke attacked Gajeel, causing him to bounce back as the two stared at each other. Natsu got up from the last attack, still struggling from the pain as he saw what was happening. Kyousuke and Gajeel stared at each other as Erza questioned him.

"Kyousuke, what are you doing?" Erza asks perplexed, just as Kyousuke stands there, staring at Gajeel.

"I'm going to stop him myself. You need to get out of here before this place explodes." Kyousuke explains to them, noting that they have only 8 minutes until the place blows up. Erza instantly refused.

"That's ridiculous! He's extremely dangerous the way he is and you know how powerful he…"

"JUST GO!" Kyousuke screams, looking at Erza with one eye. He clenched his fists tightly, not wanting to deal with it anymore. Both Roxanne and Erza looked at him completely shocked. It was a tear. A tear, pouring down from his eye. Kyousuke's voice was cracking slightly.

"Please…just go." Kyousuke asks, turning his face away as a second tear comes pouring. Erza, completely blown away by that one single tear, knew that very instant that she couldn't stop him. She smiled and requiped back to her traditional Heart Kreuz armor once again.

"If you say so." Erza says with a calm voice. As such, she commanded everyone else to leave.

"Listen up! Kyousuke will deal with Gajeel himself. All of us will tail it back to Zawisza's location to escape. We'll wait for his return with Gajeel and we'll get out of here!" Erza says. Natsu instantly refuses.

"No way, I ain't leaving until…"

"NATSU!" Erza shouts angrily. Her looked was stern and serious, and he knew from that look that he had no say in the matter. Dayton ran over to Natsu and helped him up, helping him out of the room as they all head out. Roxanne, though, stopped for a bit. She wanted to tell Kyousuke something important; finally help him out.

"Kyousuke. Save Gajeel. I know he's way more important to you." Roxanne encourages, taking off afterwards. Kyousuke gains a grin on his face in response, closing his eyes as he promises to himself that he will.

"_I will." _Kyousuke thinks to himself. He looks up at Gajeel, ready to stop his madness and save him from his own destruction. "Gajeel! I will save you, and I won't hold back!" Kyousuke says determined. At this point, there was no stopping him. Kyousuke has to save Gajeel, for he cannot live with himself if he were to fail. He cannot lose!


	28. Chapter 28: Two Important Pieces

Chapter 28: Two Important Pieces

Just as everyone had evacuated from the room, Kyousuke was left to stop Gajeel's rampage before they could escape the disaster that awaits them. Zawisza and the others managed to get the helicopter outside of the base and were waiting for everyone else so they could depart. Unfortunately, they only had 8 minutes until the entire place became a giant mass of rubble, so they had to hurry. That wasn't going to be easy for them however. Kyousuke eyed Gajeel's every movement, knowing that each one would be a dangerous one. He really needed to be careful if he wanted to stop him, and even that was going to be tough. Gajeel only grinned, becoming more interested in Kyousuke has he could have him 'all to himself'. Kyousuke looked back at him with a serious, focused expression. He needed to stay concentrated or it will cost him.

"I need to get serious." Kyousuke says to himself, instantly charging up his magic power as he prepares to battle. Gajeel, becoming intrigued, also took the time to charge up his magical energy, just standing there without movement as a green magic aura surrounds him. After the two charge up, Kyousuke decides to make the first move. Several electrically charged particles surround his body as he is covered in Electric Dragon Scales, similar to that of Gajeel's Iron Dragon Scales. Gajeel looked at him amused, preparing to battle him sadistically once again.

"You think that's gonna help you?" He questions, Kyousuke responding in a calm demeanor.

"It's more effective than you think." Kyousuke says cleverly. He prepared to make the first move, Gajeel following him by a close second.

Kyousuke immediately starts off by blasting the ground in-front of Gajeel using his Z-Force, which forces Gajeel to jump back as Kyousuke takes advantage of this. He prepares to pin him down using his electricity, punching him in the chest as he prepares to restrict him with it. However, Gajeel also punched Kyousuke in the chest, taking the damage from Kyousuke's scales and barely being affected by the electricity. Kyousuke looks up at Gajeel in shock, not realizing his potential once again. Gajeel then uses his Iron Dragon's Club to hit Kyousuke and push him back, causing Kyousuke to flip backwards from the impact of the attack. He was able to recover his stance, landing on his feet as he noticed Gajeel zooming straight for him, ready to pound him into the ground. Kyousuke dodged the attack as Gajeel missed and hit the wall, quickly turning and noticing Kyousuke flipping around and heading straight for him. He went straight for Gajeel's stomach, elbowing him right there as he then went up to uppercut him in the chin. The attack affected Gajeel only slightly, yet it wasn't enough to stop him from dodging the uppercut. Bending backwards, Gajeel dodges the punch as Kyousuke looks back down at him in response. Gajeel instantly hits him with his Iron Dragon's Club, but Kyousuke quickly jumps on top of it as he heads straight for Gajeel and kicks him in the chest, pushing him forward as he did a backflip off of him. The impact of the kick was enough to send him flying into the wall behind him, just as Kyousuke lands and charges up a second attack to use. Gajeel recovers from the attack with ease, getting up and looking at Kyousuke with an intrigued expression.

"Impressive, but I ain't done yet!" Gajeel says. His blood was stirring, and he wanted more action. The madness made the sadistic outlook on him more potent, and he seemed scarier than before. Kyousuke wasn't one to be intimidated so easily though.

"I never would've thought you were!" Kyousuke says in a state of frustration, charging for Gajeel as Gajeel himself does the same. Kyousuke blocked an incoming punch from Gajeel using his arm, much like Gajeel would, and went to hit Gajeel in the face. However, the attack was also blocked, and they both stood there firing a barrage of punches at each other that made sparks shoot everywhere. They at one point had hit each other in the face and took more damage; Gajeel dealing with the added electricity and Kyousuke dealing with the impact of his punch. His Iron Dragon Scales were no joke; he became way too strong to be so easily beaten. Kyousuke had to do something more effective.

"_I better do it now before never!" _Kyousuke thinks to himself frustrated. He prepared to fire his Electric Dragon's Roar, just as Gajeel watched him and became amused. He also prepared to fire his own Iron Dragon's Roar, both dragon slayers preparing to fire massive blasts at each other. They eventually both fired, and both dragon's roars collided with each other at impressive speeds. Gajeel was easily gaining the upper-hand, so Kyousuke had to counteract by exerting more magic power into his Dragon's roar. It started to push against Gajeel's dragon's roar, and it was pushing it back to the center slowly. Eventually the roars were at equal force, both expanding rapidly with nowhere for the magic energy to go. At one point the roars suddenly exploded, causing a massive explosion that engulfed the entire room in smoke &amp; debris, sending both mages flying into the walls. Kyousuke coughed up more blood upon impact as Gajeel's Iron Dragon Scales gained a few cracks. They hurt a bit, but they were not going to stop him at all. Gajeel was also dealing with the added electricity, noticing that it was more powerful and it actually hurt (even in his madness state). However, it still wasn't enough. Kyousuke got up and started walking, only to fall back down onto his knees and cough up more blood in pain. He was exhausted, and Gajeel was too. Gajeel was grinning while regaining his breath, watching Kyousuke slowly get up in amusement. He started laughing sadistically as Kyousuke looked at him frustrated. "_Damn. He's very strong. Out of all the people I thought I would fight, I never would've guessed one of them would be him." _Kyousuke thinks to himself frustrated. Gajeel wasn't called "Black Steel Gajeel" for nothing. He turned his attention to Kyousuke again as Kyousuke looked at him frustrated.

"You've got guts; I'll give you that. But you ain't ever gonna beat me the way you are." Gajeel explains in a sadistic tone. Kyousuke knew deep down that he was right. Gajeel was pulling out all the stunts without any effort and Kyousuke was still regaining his breath. Seeing what he could do to Natsu already put the odds against him. He tried convincing him through words like Roxanne did earlier.

"Gajeel, we don't have to go through this bull-crap." Kyousuke explains, looking at Gajeel with a painful but remorseful expression. Gajeel just gave him a perplexed look.

"What the hell are you talking about? I think it's ridiculous that you would say crap like that."

"Gajeel, don't be such an idiot! The more we sit here fighting each other, the more time we're wasting on leaving this place! We need to get out of here as soon as…" Kyousuke yells angrily, only to be stopped as Gajeel heads straight for him. Kyousuke jumps out of the way quickly, watching as he zooms up to Gajeel in return. He fires a number of kicks and punches in an angry fury as Gajeel takes each and every one helplessly. Just as Kyousuke finishes, he uses a dragon slayer technique called Electric Dragon's X-Force, which is a power blast of electricity from a single impact of a punch that blasted Gajeel into the wall painfully. Angry, Kyousuke started rushing towards him as Gajeel quickly got up and hit him in the face with a downwards punch. He then grabbed Kyousuke and slammed him into the ground, using his Iron Dragon's Club to plow him through the ground painfully. He wasn't even pulling all the stunts, but neither was Kyousuke. Angry, Kyousuke got up and watched as Gajeel prepared to use his Iron Dragon's Lance: Demon Logs spell. He knew he was in trouble the minute Gajeel started grinning sadistically once again. Kyousuke retorted by using his Electric Dragon's Laser Lance, which collided with Gajeel's spell as it was going to explode again. Afraid of that happening, Kyousuke jumped to the side of the attack, getting hit by one of the lances, and headed straight for Gajeel while he was firing the spell. Gajeel, realizing this himself, quickly sprinted for Kyousuke and grabbed him, pinning him to the wall in a chokehold as he easily gained the upper-hand. Gajeel had that evil, psychotic expression in his eyes that made you think he was some sort of monster.

"I thought you were gonna be a challenge at first, but guess not. Looks like I'll have to take out the trash again." Gajeel says, grinning as he holds Kyousuke up by the neck. Fearing this would happen, Kyousuke tried breaking free as he was losing his own life in the process. He had to think of something _fast_. Gajeel could easily kill him right at this point, and Kyousuke needed to stop him. Eventually he just had it.

"_SCREW THIS!" _He thinks to himself, shoving a palm onto Gajeel's chest with all his force as he fires a powerful blast of energy into him. Gajeel starts screaming in pain once again, except this time he's become more out of control as Kyousuke was forcibly restraining him. He tried moving around but Kyousuke's spell was refraining him from doing so, which caused him to scream louder as the pain became more unbearable. It became easier as Kyousuke regained his breath and managed to start breathing normally again. Kyousuke was using the spell to search for the madness that was attached to the beam Intelon shot into Gajeel, so he could remove it once and for all. "Dammit! Where is that damn thing?!" Kyousuke says frustrated, trying to find it as Gajeel's screams of pain became more unbearable. Eventually, Kyousuke felt something strange inside Gajeel, and that is when he found it. "I'VE GOT YOU NOW!" Kyousuke shouts, using all of his strength to remove the madness from Gajeel. Kyousuke was screaming himself as he was forcibly removing the madness from Gajeel, which was more painful for Gajeel than it should be. Using the last of his strength, Kyousuke rips out the beige colored beam and quickly throws it onto the ground. It moves around as if the madness has turned it into a creature, and just as it does, Kyousuke blasts the thing to pieces with his electricity. He takes a deep breath in relief as he finally starts calming down again.

Having finally removed the madness from Gajeel, Kyousuke feels extreme relief. Gajeel just stands there frozen, slowly returning to normal from the effects of the madness just as Kyousuke puts his hands on his shoulders. He became more compassionate in his tone of voice.

"Come on Gajeel, snap out of it! That madness isn't in you anymore!" Kyousuke says, slowly moving Gajeel around to get him to snap out of the trance he was in. Eventually, Gajeel came to his senses, looking around slowly to remember where he was at and what was happening. He looked at Kyousuke in wonder, wondering what happened this whole time and also suddenly becoming shocked over the condition Kyousuke was in.

"What the hell happened here?" Gajeel asks calmly, Kyousuke looking happier as Gajeel was back to normal. Gajeel stretched his muscles and everything to get used to it all again. Kyousuke responded in a compassionate tone.

"It was the madness…it took control of you." Kyousuke explains. Just as Kyousuke says such, Gajeel suddenly remembers everything he did when he went mad; the abuse with Natsu, how he treated everyone, his sadistic tone. It hit Gajeel so hard that he started to get angry; clenching his fists as his expression became angrier as if he was angry with himself.

"Give me a break!" He yells angrily, breaking away from Kyousuke as he starts clenching his fists tighter and starts moving around agitated. Kyousuke, becoming upset, quickly jumped in and grabbed Gajeel regardless; wrapping his arms around him and pulling him in. He was _hugging _Gajeel. Gajeel looked at him with complete surprise, wondering what he was doing as he felt warm all of the sudden. Kyousuke's voice became somewhat softer.

"I don't care about what you did. I'm not gonna hold this against you for some stupid reason." Kyousuke says, tearing up as he finally decided to open up to Gajeel. Gajeel felt so different because of this; he felt very warm and caring. He felt like this sometimes with Levy but he would've never thought Kyousuke would make him feel the same way, or much more. "You mean too much to me!" Kyousuke goes on, opening up to Gajeel. "You've tried to help me all this time and all I did was just ignore you! I know I was wrong and I'm sorry!" Kyousuke cries. His head was on Gajeel's chest as all he did was release his emotions. They were a powerful force, and Gajeel could easily feel how remorseful Kyousuke was. Gajeel felt happiness. He was happy that Kyousuke finally opened up to him about the way he felt. With that Gajeel, smiling, put a hand on Kyousuke's head and rustled his hair a bit, causing Kyousuke to look back up at Gajeel as he became more compassionate in his tone.

"Yeah yeah, you can stop feeling sorry now." Gajeel says, just as Kyousuke looks at him, hearing every single word he has to say. "I ain't mad at you or any crap like that. I'm not letting the same crap I went through happen to you." Gajeel says in a more serious but yet compassionate tone. Kyousuke looked at him surprised before changing his expression to a smile, for once.

"Yeah, like it hasn't happened yet." Kyousuke says jokingly. Gajeel also chuckles in response. Their relationship strengthened and Kyousuke finally got a majority of his hatred out of his system.

"You wanna get outta here?" Gajeel asks, just as Kyousuke agrees. They prepared to leave, until they heard the announcer.

"One minute until the base explodes." The announcer says, causing Gajeel and Kyousuke to widen their eyes in horror.

"No way! Only one minute?!" Gajeel says in shock, "We ain't gonna make it!"

"Or…maybe we will." Kyousuke says, coming up with a plan.

As they did, Natsu, Dayton, Roxanne and Erza all managed to get to everyone else's location. Once arriving in the room where the helicopter was originally, they ran up the stairs and all got into the helicopter, waiting for Kyousuke and Gajeel. That was beforehand however, and now they were waiting as their hearts raced in horror. Every second that had passed, the scarier it became. Roxanne was getting particularly worried, and she seemed rather anxious.

"Where the hell are they?! The base will explode anytime now!" Roxanne says frustrated. She was trying to not lose herself in her frustration, since thinking about the two of them getting blasted with the explosion was horrifying enough. Erza saw her frustration and felt much the same.

"I agree, but rushing back in there could get us into even more problems. It'd be wise to wait here for them to make it out so we can leave here as soon as possible." Erza explains, just as Roxanne looks at her with a frustrated expression. Though, she knew she was right.

"Yeah, you're right. It's just not easy sitting here and waiting for them to just appear you know." Roxanne says. Erza could see the frustration in Roxanne, and she put a hand on her shoulder.

"They'll be alright," Erza says just as Roxanne looks at her, "you should remember that Gajeel's an Iron Dragon Slayer."

"Yeah, I kind of forgot." Roxanne says jokingly. She continued to have hope in the two of them, continuing to wait for them to come out. Suddenly though, the helicopter's doors shut automatically, and it starts flying off the ground. Roxanne's hope sank like a ship as everyone starts to freak out, having no idea about what's happening to the plane.

"What the heck; the copter is flying on its own!" Dayton says in shock. Everyone started to freak out as Erza got frustrated herself.

"Zawisza! What's going on?!" She demanded, just as Zawisza is struggling with the controls.

"This is bad. The helicopter has engaged the auto-pilot mode and is leaving because the base will explode in 15 seconds." She explains. Everyone, hearing this, starts to panic, trying to break through each other to break down the doors. Levy stood back trying to not cry as she knew what might happen, just as Lucy goes to comfort her and Roxanne stands there paralyzed.

At the same time, Kyousuke and Gajeel make hand contact, combining each other's energies as it starts to glow as an aura around the two.

At the copter, everyone is trying to break through each other and the copter as Erza becomes extremely agitated.

"WE NEED TO SAVE THEM!" Natsu screams, trying to break through the doors along with everyone else just as Erza gets angry.

"ENOUGH!" She screams, causing everyone to freeze right at that point in time. Angry, she goes off.

"We will only get ourselves caught up in the blast. All we can do is hope they come out alive!" Erza says sadly. Levy, hearing this, slides down onto the ground in tears as Roxanne stands there in shock. Her hope was crushed to bits and sadness clouded her vision. She didn't know what to say. She was so upset and angry and sad and hateful and everything. She angrily punches through the window in the helicopter, shocking everyone as she reaches her hands out through the window.

Kyousuke and Gajeel then move from their hands to holding each other, combining their energies into one as they prepare for the incoming blast.

Roxanne screams out in terror.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" She screams. Her scream echoed for several miles until it faded away. What came next was the base becoming completely engulfed in an orange blast that burned it to a crisp and destroyed everything within its range. The base had finally exploded. Roxanne let her arm fall, hitting the helicopter as she stared at the explosion with completely widened eyes. Her heart was shattered to pieces. It was shattered just like glass and the pieces flew off into the remains of the two she cared for so much. Everyone was devastated. Levy only cried out as Lucy sat there and comforted her, becoming more likely to cry with her just as everyone stood there in complete shock. Even Natsu couldn't believe that it happened, but he just kept his mouth shut for he knew he would only make it worse. Pantherlily was horrified himself at the loss of a partner and Erza even felt severe remorse, but most of all, Roxanne was _destroyed_. Turning around with her bottle of emotions, she walked into the back end of the helicopter, opening the compartment door and shutting it behind her. From then on screams could be heard from her. She let herself go.

"AAAAAAAAAAAGGGGHHHHH!" She screamed. You could hear her tears as she sat there and started going off about it. "THOSE ASSHOLES! THEY KILLED THEM! THEY KILLED KYOUSUKE! THEY KILLED HIM! GAJEEL'S DEAD TOO! THOSE FUCKING BASTARDS!" She screamed in horror. She ran around kicking, punching, slamming, screaming, banging and doing everything in a hateful way. She took metal polls in the room and slammed them against the wall, slamming boxes and materials and everything she could get her hands on. She was terrified and furious, destroying everything in sight with her hateful rage. Eventually, she became too upset to be angry anymore and the anger converted to tears of pain. It was as if her heart was being tortured.

"WHY DID THEY DO THIS?! WHY?!" She screams, slowly sliding down onto the ground as she starts crying in pain. She was so sick of the crap she went through. For years she tried getting to Kyousuke and helping him out, and at the same time Gajeel made her have faith in Kyousuke alone and in herself. Now they were just, gone. No one else outside tried to stop her because they probably would've done the same thing if they were her. Natsu was furious, but he was too angry to even talk. His belief of him being able to save everyone was weakened and the passionate Natsu that gave everyone hope wasn't there now. Dayton was also furious too, but now wasn't the time to express it. Levy was still crying and eventually Lucy started crying herself. Gajeel may have done bad stuff to her in the past but he changed, and Lucy started to think of him as a friend too, even if they barely talked. Pantherlily was filled with shock and devastation and Gray and Axel just kept to themselves. Erza though, she was also taking it pretty hard. She may have been strict but it wasn't without a heart. She never would've thought that Gajeel and Kyousuke would be the ones that they would've lost. Perhaps Natsu was right about not leaving before, but it was too late. She felt she had failed to protect those she cared for and that she was the one who failed to make the right choice back then. The copter was in autopilot mode so the plane would land on its own, and Zawisza just sat there thinking to herself about leaving the D-Raided. Everyone was silent as ever, with the exception of the tears and sorrow that surrounded them.

As time passed, they landed back at the Abstract Magic High School. The copter landed as everyone looked at it completely shocked, going off and gossiping as usual about it. As usual as everything there was, nothing was right for the wizards inside the plane. Ms. Areca could be seen coming out of the school to see the plane for herself, just as Zawisza opens the doors in the copter (wondering why the hell they landed at a school) and jumped out with everyone else. Ms. Areca was highly curious and worried about everyone (except Zawisza honestly); only to be met with depressed and devastated expressions. Everyone from the copter seemed upset and kind of depressed, just as Roxanne got out last and cleaned herself up. Ms. Areca instantly ran up and tried to help.

"Oh my gosh, are you all alright?!" She says shocked. Roxanne, being emotionally drained, just straight up told her a lie.

"We're fine." She simply says. Erza could easily tell how upset she was, and she felt bad herself. She felt that she couldn't anything about it, and it made her feel weak. Ms. Areca noticed everyone except for a couple of wizards, and wondered where they were.

"Roxanne, where's Kyousuke?" She asks concerned, not thinking twice before asking the question. Roxanne's heart only felt more wounded, as if saying anything about him made it worse. She turned her head away and told her, not wanting anyone to see her sadness.

"Kyousuke and Gajeel…they didn't make it back with us." Roxanne says. She tried holding her emotions back as Ms. Areca stared at her completely shocked.

* * *

Just as that was happening, the base at the D-Raided was clear of the smoke. What was left was a large pile of rubble that covered a base of destroyed materials. Every member of the D-Raided that was there was pretty much dead, and if not they escaped barely alive. In one area was a large, blue sphere that was enforced with Iron. It was in the same area that Kyousuke and Gajeel fought earlier. Only seconds later, both spheres cracked and shattered apart, revealing two mages that were holding each other the whole time. It was so the shield could be formed to protect from the explosion. Kyousuke, holding Gajeel as he did the same, smiled in relief.

"We're alive."


	29. Chapter 29: Pain I Thought Didn't Exist

Chapter 29: Pain I Thought Couldn't Exist

A crushing defeat; only witnessed by those who managed to escape the doom that lied dormant within the base. Not only were they traumatized by those that they lost in their escape, but they also had lost all hope for themselves. Yet, they are unaware of what has really happened with those they loved. For all this time they thought they were dead, the two held onto each other desperately for survival. Kyousuke, having finally realized that the explosion had passed, let go of Gajeel and fell to the ground helplessly. He was completely drained of all his magic power, and had it not been for the shield both Kyousuke and Gajeel had created, they would be dead as Roxanne and the others had presumed. Gajeel, also realizing the explosion having passed by, gained his own personal smile on his face. Just as worn out as Kyousuke, he let himself go as he fell to the ground as well, too worn out to move in his current condition. Both wizards were extremely exhausted, and they lied on the ground breathing heavily. Yet, as they did, they were filled with extreme relief and elation. They were too worn out themselves to think about what the others are thinking right now. Kyousuke turned a head towards Gajeel, seeing him breathing just as much as he himself was.

"Looks like we're not dead…you know." Kyousuke says. He continued to regain his breath as Gajeel did the same.

"You got that right." Gajeel says optimistically. He then turns his head to Kyousuke with a similar smile on his face. It was always nice seeing a _pleasant_ smile on Gajeel's face. Kyousuke was happy himself about it too. He turned his head and looked up though; his tone become more calm.

"Or maybe just you." Kyousuke whispers. Gajeel, having heard what he said, looks at Kyousuke confused.

"Huh? What the hell are you talking about?"

"That explosion…forcibly removed the madness I had from me. You didn't have any madness to begin with…so obviously you're okay. But for me…looks like I'm going with it." Kyousuke says exhausted. His breathing started to slow down as Gajeel looked at him with increasing shock. His eyes started to widen a bit as he looked at Kyousuke desperately.

"What are you saying? You ain't dying!" Gajeel says annoyed, looking at Kyousuke as he just looks back. He started breathing normally again, just as he sees Gajeel looking at him both confused and upset. Kyousuke just smiled in response.

"Out of all people, you're the one who gives me that face."

"Don't be ridiculous! I ain't letting you die here!" Gajeel says angrily. He felt like Kyousuke wasn't supposed to die, yet he was. Kyousuke looked at him, requipping his chokuto to his side with all his last strength, as if he had to in some way. He said one more thing.

"You know…I could never lose someone as important as you." Kyousuke says smiling. A tear poured from his eye afterwards, just as his smile faded away and he lost all emotion in his face. Gajeel's eyes widened considerably, just as he grabs Kyousuke and starts shaking him.

"Quit the crap, I know you're not dead!" He says angrily, grabbing Kyousuke and shaking him. Kyousuke just wobbled back and forth like a lifeless doll. It wasn't there anymore. He…was gone. Gajeel, completely horrified at such a sight, slowly let go of Kyousuke as he looked at his lifeless body. The realization was such a shock to him. He started to fill up with rage, clenching his fists in increasing anger.

"Damn those bastards!" He says to himself angrily. He decided to get up, but before doing so he saw Kyousuke's chokuto lying next to him. He looked at it with wonder, subsiding his anger for the moment so he could examine the peculiar weapon Kyousuke always had on him. It was quite the weapon, and Kyousuke knew how to use it with great precision. "_He's always walking around with that thing. I gotta know why though." _Gajeel thinks to himself curiously. However, his curiosity is cut short when Kyousuke's body starts becoming covered in blue, sparkling magic energy. Looking at him in shock, Gajeel soon realized that his body was being taken away since it no longer held life. In a state of panic, he turned to Kyousuke's chokuto and shot for it, grabbing it with one hand as he pulled it closer to him. Much to his surprise though, it started to burn. Gajeel sat there painfully trying to hold onto the chokuto as he tried to figure out how to use it.

"What the heck's up with this thing?!" Gajeel says shocked. He forced his grip onto the chokuto as the pain slowly started to fade. It stopped burning with time as Gajeel managed to get a grip of the sword with ease. "I wonder what the heck that was all about." Gajeel says to himself. Suddenly, the swords starts to glow a bright iron color just as Kyousuke stops glowing, suddenly glowing in the center of his body. The confusion within Gajeel shot up as things got weirder for him. Looking at the glowing section on Kyousuke's body, Gajeel turns his attention to the chokuto, and then back at Kyousuke's body again. He thought of something that sounds just as stupid as it is smart.

"Well, here goes nothing." Gajeel says, grabbing Kyousuke lightly. He held Kyousuke out in-front of him with his left hand as he prepared to pierce Kyousuke with the chokuto in his right hand. He did it, piercing Kyousuke through the glowing spot as Gajeel slowly pulls it out afterwards. Just as he does, Kyousuke starts glowing brightly as white energy can be seen flying directly into Kyousuke. Just as such happens, Gajeel's arm starts glowing silver in color. Looking at his arm in shock, Gajeel watches as his whole body becomes covered in this silver aura. He could feel incredibly high amounts of magic energy being filled into the chokuto, just as he looks back at Kyousuke shocked. Kyousuke slowly stops glowing, just as Gajeel looks at him shocked. He then looks back at the sword, seeing it resonate with the green energy that resembles Gajeel's own magic energy. He felt a need to test it.

"I wanna see what this thing's got." Gajeel says, getting up and looking straight at the wall in-front of him. Having set the wall as his target, he prepares to use the chokuto, holding it back behind him like a sword and then swinging it towards the wall with immense force. The amount of magic power he used could be felt as a powerful wind, and just as he swung, a large silver wave of Iron flew out from the blade, spinning at incredibly high speed towards the wall in-front of him. Gajeel watched in awe as this massive, spinning iron blade flew directly into the wall in-front of him, shredding it to bits as it flew through the rest of the base and eventually into the helicopter room from earlier. Gajeel gained a grin on his face as he got down and grabbed Kyousuke. He threw him onto his shoulder, and with that he headed through the hole he just made, wielding a new power for the time being. "I'm sick of sitting around here. Better get moving and head back. Salamander and all them have got another thing coming." Gajeel says with a grin on his face. There was nothing stopping him at this point.

* * *

At the same time everyone else was mourning over their losses. Fun was out the window and all that remained was everyone sitting at Roxanne's place in depressed moods. What would you expect though; they were horrified at Gajeel and Kyousuke's deaths. Roxanne was preparing food and cleaning the house and sorts while everyone else was sitting on the couches, completely drained of positive thoughts.

Natsu was angry at his own failure to save them, blaming himself as he remembered the times Gajeel saved him. Had it not been for Gajeel, Natsu would be dead.

Gray and Axel were upset and said nothing of it.

Levy had stopped crying but that didn't mean she was happy again. She took it pretty hard but shockingly Erza and Roxanne took it even harder.

While Pantherlily was distraught at losing a partner, Erza was in complete, utter regret over the decision she had made. She didn't put the blame on Kyousuke, but she felt she should've intervened. As a leader she felt she made a fatal mistake. Maybe Natsu was right, but there was nothing she could do now. It was too late. It made her regretful in many ways but it wasn't something you would expect. Just as the regret filled her, memories came back.

"_I still remember it all; back when Fairy Tail went to war with Phantom Lord." _Erza thinks to herself. She remembered everything he did; destroying the guild-hall, the damage to Team Shadow Gear, his ruthless attitude and persona. He was ruthless and could care less about other people at the time. When he joined Fairy Tail, there was no way in hell that she would've trusted him, even during the S-Class trials. Yet, things have changed and her chance to trust him was taken with it all.

"_I would've never trusted him to begin with, but now…..I wish there was a second chance." _Erza thinks to herself. She's not the only one who felt bad over it all though; everyone else felt the same way, some taking it harder than others. Everyone that was there when the madness took over Gajeel felt that it was their fault; they should've done something so things didn't end up like this.

Roxanne, though, took it the hardest. She felt utterly useless. She came out into the living room where everyone sat, being blank as a canvas. Her emotions were absent and gone, wiped clean off her face as she walked in and prepared to head out. She could care less about the food right now. As she went for the door knob, Dayton called out to her as she stopped in her tracks.

"Roxanne?" He says, just as she stops and listens, "Are you leaving?" Roxanne stood there silent for a few minutes before responding, closing her eyes in disappointment.

"Yeah, I'm heading out." She simply says. Silence fills the room again before Dayton responds, his tone being upset and toned down.

"That's fine. I'm not gonna try to stop you." Dayton says. For some reason Roxanne only felt more pain inside of her. Before she started bursting into tears she opened the door and went out, Erza looking up at the door with a regretful expression on her face. The remorse that she was faced with was more painful than she wanted.

Roxanne walked down the street, walking through the city as the only things running through her head were Kyousuke and Gajeel. Kyousuke may have treated her badly but she still cared for him anyways. It was as if she looked to Kyousuke because of Axel's disappearance. Yet, Kyousuke was a wave of mystery; reluctant to let any secrets be revealed. She also remembered Gajeel too though, and when he came, Kyousuke seemed different. They were so similar, yet so different. Gajeel was stronger, was focused and not disoriented by seething emotions and went through Kyousuke like a sword. He was the only one that got to him and was able to change him for the better. It made her feel useless in a way and the fact that the two people she cared for so much are now just gone, it emptied her of happiness. People walking by on the streets would give her strange looks, wondering what was wrong with her as she isn't usually like this. At the same time however, many people didn't even give a shit, continuing on with their daily lives as if they had enough to worry about. She walked in the city, noticing a coffee shop up ahead of her. She didn't have any money on her, but she decided to head in anyways.

"ROXANNE!" She hears. It sounded like Kyousuke, just as her heart races and she spins around in shock, eyes widened. It was just other people walking through the city though, no one super important, and definitely not Kyousuke. Disappointed by what she sees, she sighs as she starts heading into the coffee shop again. "ROXANNE!" She hears again. Now she knows who it is.

She turns around to see a knight in shining armor grab her wrist as the lady pulls Roxanne away from the coffee shop. Roxanne could do nothing but let herself be dragged along with Titania as she zoomed down the city. Erza thought fast as she raced around the city, eventually landing at her destination as she lets go of Roxanne. Roxanne looks up, only to be surprised at the sight of a large canyon. It wasn't just any large canyon though, this was Kyousuke's canyon. The sight of it made her remember the times when Roxanne would see Kyousuke sit on the edge of this canyon. The energy of the canyon pulled her to the edge as she looks around and admires each and every feature; the ground, the trees near the edge and even the large river that shined like crystals. Her eyes sparkled as the reflection bounced into her eyes from the sun. Nostalgia shot through her as she remembered how important this canyon was to Kyousuke. It sank in her like a rock in the ocean. Even Dayton knew how precious it was to him. How Erza found out was unknown, but she knew, and Roxanne felt surprise at such.

"Kyousuke was here all the time." Roxanne says with a calm voice. A weak smile broke through on her face, just as Erza listened with a calm attitude. "I would come here to watch him as he would just sit there, staring into the river with the millions of thoughts running through his head. Sometimes it would rain and I would just stand there soaked. He didn't care either though, and he would sometimes bolt back home and I wouldn't even realize it." She says calmly. The thought of it shattered her a bit, and she eventually fell to her knees as she was upset once again. Erza slowly walked up to her and kneeled down next to her as she sat there in desolation. Erza felt empathetic with her feelings.

"Listen, I know how much Kyousuke means to you Roxanne." Erza explains, just as Roxanne sits there, not moving a muscle. "We all…"

"It wasn't just Kyousuke though!" Roxanne says upsettingly. Erza looks at her surprised, just as Roxanne continues. "It was Gajeel too!" She shouts, shocking Erza. "He gave me faith in Kyousuke! He told me he wouldn't do reckless things like try to kill Natsu or anything like that! You could see how much he cared about Kyousuke in his eyes!" Roxanne goes on.

"His eyes?!" Erza says surprised. She remembered the piercing red eyes that Gajeel had and the power they presented. She also remembered how Gajeel hung out and trained Kyousuke too, but she was never there to witness any of it. To think Gajeel would act this way. Roxanne started to tear up, just as Erza looks up and notices. She quickly grabs Roxanne and pulls her into her arms, just as Roxanne starts crying and lets it all out. "IT'S NOT FAIR!" Roxanne screams, crying as Erza sits there with her in complete regret. Erza also tears up, just as she feels the same way as Roxanne.

"I know what it's like to lose someone you care for." Erza says; holding Roxanne close to her as the pain eases a bit. It was hard for Erza; having to watch someone else she cared for go through the same pain that she did, but she was also glad that she could be there for her. "You can consider yourself a member of Fairy Tail Roxanne."

* * *

The next day wasn't any better. Dayton, Natsu, Roxanne, Erza, Levy &amp; Pantherlily were all in a group back at the school. They were waiting very early in the morning before class started because they were all too upset to even get some real shut-eye. None of their moods were lightened up but at least they were able to talk to each other for once. Levy decided to start off with something light.

"So this is where you go every day." She says calmly. Usually she's the one doing all the talking, but today wasn't one of those days. Dayton responded in a calm demeanor.

"Yeah. It's one of the ways I make money, other than work." Dayton responds calmly. They lived on their own so they managed to set the school up in a way that allowed them to earn a daily pay-check for each day they head to school. That wasn't important now though. Silence took over for a few more minutes until Natsu started clenching his fists angrily, being upset at what he did.

"We shouldn't have left! We should've stayed so we could've done something! That's what Fairy Tail does!" Natsu says angrily. That wasn't going to give them a second chance though. Why were Gray, Axel and Lucy not there? Who knows? Sick and tired of dealing with this, the group prepared to head inside of the school, hoping for it to help get it off their minds a bit. Tt almost nearing half-an-hour before school starts, so Dayton started heading there first.

"We might as well get to class." He says walking to the school as everyone else started to as well. Roxanne stood there, looking out into the sun for a little bit as she turned around and saw Erza. She was waiting there for her, just as Roxanne turns and heads her direction.

"Guess waiting here isn't going to bring them back, is it?" Roxanne says, slowly walking to Erza as they both start walking to the school, behind everyone else.

"What are you saying; bringing them back?" A darker voice says. It sounded more real than ever, just as the sensation of extreme shock and appalment shot through their very nerves. Roxanne and Erza's eyes widened as they slowly turned around to see the tall figure standing before them, holding a body on his right shoulder as he stood there in-front of them. Dayton heard something and prepared to turn around.

"What's up Roxanne…" Dayton says before receiving the same feeling. Natsu, Pantherlily, and Levy also got hit with the intense feeling of shock. It was too good to be true. Levy gasped in shock just as everyone else watched in bewilderment, Roxanne shaking a bit at the shocking truth. She tried to say something but she jittered as she said it, being overwhelmed with awe and bafflement. Dayton and Natsu were shocked themselves.

"No way." Dayton simply says, not being able to say anymore. Natsu was speechless, and Roxanne had finally spit it out.

"Gajeel!" Roxanne states in shock. She was trembling before him as he stared at her with his serious red eyes, appearing as if it was nothing major. She fell to her knees, thunderstruck as everyone else rushed up to Gajeel. Levy grabbed him and hugged him tightly as everyone else surrounded him. It was as if he was the great treasure that they had all been searching for.

"I thought you were gone forever! Don't do that to me!" Levy shouts in tears. Gajeel grinned a bit, but there was something else on his mind.

"Yeah yeah. You can quit the crying now shrimp." Gajeel says, Levy being annoyed. Pantherlily jumped to the questions.

"What the heck happened down there?!" Pantherlily asks in shock. Gajeel just straight up summarized it.

"Long story short; the base exploded and we created a shield out of our Dragon Slayer Magic." Gajeel explains. Natsu and Dayton were surprised.

"A Dragon Slayer Magic shield?!"

"Yeah, but we don't have time to talk about that right now!" Gajeel says with a serious tone. It sort of sucks to break the good mood, but it was important. Erza was happy herself but she didn't intervene. Gajeel walked up to Roxanne, who looked up at him from her knees. She was too shocked to say anything right away. Noticing her stationary position, Gajeel became annoyed.

"Come on, stand up!" Gajeel orders. Roxanne looked at Gajeel a bit surprised before getting up, looking at him with a still completely mind-blown expression. The happiness was starting to fill up in her.

"Wha..what is it?" She asks calmly, just as Gajeel gets straight to the point. There was no time to waste.

"Kyousuke here isn't looking good." Gajeel says, shooting down the happiness in Roxanne. She felt like a sunken ship as she suddenly felt extreme desperation for a need to know what was wrong. Gajeel clenched his fist a bit, surprising everyone.

"He might be dying."

"WHAT?!" Everyone shouts. Everyone was appalled.

"NO!" Roxanne says in disbelief. She didn't want to believe it, but she had no choice. That was why Gajeel seemed so impatient.

"I know _you _can heal him." Gajeel says; pointing at Roxanne who looked at him surprised. He didn't think he would look to her for help. If that's what he wants though, that's what she's going to give him. She looked at him with an anxious look in her eyes.

"So what do you want me to do?!"

"Take me to your place. We can get him all back to normal once we get there." Gajeel says. With that, each and every one zooms straight for Roxanne's place. They had no time to waste and Gajeel was determined to make sure Kyousuke survives. Will Kyousuke make it?


	30. Chapter 30: A Bond Made of Iron

Chapter 30: A Bond Made of Iron

A certain man comes up to the rubble of what was left of the D-Raided. The only thing he could hear in the vicinity was the sound of his footsteps in the leftovers of the base, fire resulting from the explosion, and sparks from computer technologies throughout the base. Silent, he walked through and saw Intelon's dead body lying there in the ground before him. Curiosity struck him since nothing was stranger than how the invaders managed to escape alive. He could sense some of their leftover magic energy, thinking about how capable the wizards were.

"Well Intelon, you have failed me. I'm disappointed by your lack of control of the situation." He said to the dead body. Feeling the magic energy, he could tell that it wasn't just the wizards from this land. "These wizards are more than just capable. They have the potential to go up against someone as strong as Tetrion and kill him with ease." He says to himself. He closed his eyes, gaining a clearer perspective of the magic energy that floated about; bits of it dispersing with each passing second. He felt disappointment in himself as well. "Underestimating these wizards was a foolish mistake. It's shocking enough that Kyousuke and Dayton had that much strength." He thought to himself slightly shocked. It became just impression though, and he was in awe for a moment. "Natsu and Gajeel in fact pose an even bigger threat, along with that Erza Scarlet and Roxanne Laurel. I'll have to take careful measures on the way I eliminate them." He says to himself. His voice was deep and gruff, yet had a profound air to it. He emitted an aura of bloodlust that was powerful enough to bring people to their knees. It took someone 'extremely _stupid_' to go against his ideals. He looked up and saw a woman walking out to him in pain; gritting her teeth as she bleed from several cuts and wounds on her body. She looked up at him and forcefully put a pleasant expression on her face, quickly moving to him as his presence commanded her attention.

"My apologies great leader, but I have failed you. The wizards stripped us of EVERYTHING and they got away with it!" The woman says, turning out to be Felicia Airstorm. Her worn out physical appearance and body covered in cuts and wounds overshadowed an underlying feeling of extreme fear and inferiority. She was afraid of him ending her if he was displeased with anything she's done. Much to her surprise, the man turns around and heads out of the base, moving to the surface. He had no purpose waiting in the rubble of the D-Raided headquarters.

"Come. I still have a use for you." He tells her. Extreme relief shot through her as she followed his orders happily. The two walked out of the base, setting their sights on the sky as the guy has future plans for eliminating the wizards who caused all this damage. The man who looked exactly as Roxanne suggested, stood there with rising ambition. There was no stopping him now. "They may think they've stopped me, but they are far from it. They'll get another taste of what the D-Raided has to offer. There is no point of return now. It's time to _eliminate_ it all." The guy says while leaving a breath of indigo magic energy that burned like acid in the very air he was standing in.

* * *

On the other side of the spectrum, when all hope was lost, the two managed to miraculously return as their return was welcomed gracefully. Kyousuke was still unconscious, so they put him in Roxanne's guest room for the time being. His magic energy could be sensed so there was hope that he was still alive, but it wasn't easy to think that way. Roxanne had everything he may have needed prepared for him right on the spot, hoping desperately that he wasn't dead. She was happy to see both Gajeel and Kyousuke upon their return but when Gajeel walked out of the house without a word, Roxanne's hope became questionable. She wasn't the only one who felt remorseful though.

Dayton and Natsu were out in the living room talking about random things to pass the time (reluctant to think that Kyousuke might die), Gray and Axel parted ways and took walks around the neighborhood and Erza went looking for Gajeel, who somehow managed to disappear from the neighborhood with ease. She wasn't particularly worried about his location, but it was more about his well-being. Walking down through the city she soon remembered that it was the place of where they initially found out about the D-Raided. She remembered Kyousuke's hateful reaction and how he stormed off hatefully. Remembering the way he took, she sought after the place he went to again. She continued down through the city on her own when she couldn't remember the places he went through anymore, and she managed to land on a large cliff that hung over a massive edge.

Upon walking to the edge, she found what she was looking for. Lying next to a tree was Gajeel, having his arms crossed as he looked down into the large river that flowed in the gorge seen below. It was nice and calming, and the sight of the river was not only beautiful, but it was also refreshing. Gajeel's expression though wasn't far off from serious. He was hard to read at points though. He always knew how to hide the problems in his life as he dealt with them on his own. Erza stared at him for a bit, eying him as he just continues to look down into the river. He had a black, short sleeved shirt on for the time being since the top-half of his outfit was ripped to shreds. It gave him a bulkier look; made him look tough and cool. Perhaps that was just the way he came off though. Erza walked up behind the tree Gajeel was lying against, slowly lying against the back of the tree herself. She let out a sigh of relief as she relaxed herself a bit. Gajeel looked back up and behind him to notice that she was there. He was a bit surprised, but he wasn't too happy about it either.

"What's up with you?" Gajeel asks curiously, giving her a perplexed look as she just lies there still. She gained a smile on her face.

"That's funny; I should be the one asking you that." Erza replies. She tried brightening up the mood with her smile, but nevertheless Gajeel turned and continued to look back into the river.

"It's nothing." He simply puts it. Looking into the river, he could sort of understand why Kyousuke enjoyed looking into it so much. It was soothing and it was calming. The energy in this area was like a healer; you could think about the problems you had and deal with your issues mentally. The problem Gajeel had was Kyousuke though. He wasn't sure if he was going to come back or not, and if he didn't… He didn't want to think about that. He's already dealt with enough crap in his life, and this would just make it worse. Erza noticed him staring down into the river and tried talking to him about it, even if he was reluctant to.

"Listen…" She says, Gajeel keeping an ear out while he continues to stare in the river, "I know how important Kyousuke was to you." She stopped for a minute as Gajeel doesn't reply, continuing on about it. "It was strange; he was spot on with what he said. He was once a D-Raided member, and the way he put it mirrored exactly what you may have dealt with, having been a wizard of Phantom Lord." She said. Increasing curiosity had arisen as Gajeel continued to listen to her on-going explanation. "Trust and loyalty is very important to you, isn't it?" She asks. Gajeel widened his eyes a bit. He was surprised himself that she would've saw that so easily. Maybe it was because Kyousuke made it so obvious.

Whatever the reason, he was definitely shocked, but the thought of Kyousuke's condition returned his expression to the way it was before. Just then Erza walked over to Gajeel, catching his attention as he looks up to her with a dark look in his eyes. Right at that moment, she grabs him and pulls him towards herself, wrapping her arms around him as she puts her head on his shoulder. Gajeel stood there shocked. If there was anyone that Gajeel thought wouldn't do something like this for him, one of those people would be Erza. Yet, here she is, holding him with a strong grasp as she releases her delight into him.

"You've done so much on this journey! You've always been loyal, even if I couldn't trust you." Erza says. Her voice begins to crack a bit as Gajeel stands there in total bafflement. There was a warmth that emitted from her armor-clad hug, and it was something to be embraced. Erza then moved from hugging him down to holding his arms, just as Gajeel looks down at her with a shocked expression. She started to cry, but it wasn't tears of sorrow. It was her happiness coming out of her. "Thank you so much for everything you've done!" She says happily.

With that, she let go of him and turned around, heading back for Roxanne's place as Gajeel stands there in complete bafflement. He watched as she walked and disappeared from the cliff, turning around and deciding to lie against the tree once again. This time he sat down on the ground, having his right knee up as he put an arm on it. He was still baffled by Erza's actions; he would've never ever expected that from her. A grin appeared on his face as he chuckled to himself in delight, looking back out at the Cliffside again.

"Well one thing's for sure; she's one hell of a nut job." He says to himself, chuckling again. It made him happy to know that she showed that she trusted him. He felt that he finally accomplished what he wanted.

* * *

Just as Erza heads back, Kyousuke is seen lying in the bed still. He was the only one in the room now. The magic energy within his body came racing back to him, pulsing through his veins once more as he suddenly snapped out of it. His eyes shot open as he stared at the ceiling; his thoughts coming back to him. A few seconds later he pushed himself up, looking all around the room in confusion as he starts to wonder where he is. Just then, the memories of his last moments beforehand came rushing back to him, and the last thing he remembered was the expression on Gajeel's face. He shook his head as he continued to wake up again, suddenly jumping out of bed as he runs to the front door.

Without Natsu and Dayton noticing, Kyousuke shoots out the door as he starts running and looking for Gajeel. However, he's halted when Roxanne looks up and calls his name. Stopping in his tracks, he turns around and notices her giving him a shocked expression. He became more relaxed and his face became more serious, just as he starts heading off after Gajeel once again.

"Kyousuke wait!" Roxanne shouts, causing Kyousuke to stop again just as Roxanne starts running up to him. He slowly turns around as he sees her approaching him with widened eyes. She slows down in-front of him, looking at him completely surprised as he looks at her with a serious expression. She slowly asks him a question. "Whe…where are you going?" She asks calmly. Kyousuke turns and looks out at the cliff he used to be at, ultimately assuming that Gajeel's there.

"I'm going to look for Gajeel." He says, slowly walking off as Roxanne just stands there shocked. He starts to walk off to look for Gajeel, but then stops in his tracks. Just before he decides to take off, he turns and looks at her once again, noticing how she has her hand out towards him. However, she pulled it back in, turning around as she continues working again. She was working on the gardening around her house, noticing that some plants died while they were on their journey to the base. It was unfortunate, but she wasn't too upset. The situation with the D-Raided was on her mind more so anyway. She continued doing her work, trying to not think of Kyousuke as she worked because she only felt more pain.

"Listen…" Kyousuke says, catching her attention. She just freezes, standing there without turning around a single inch as she hears what he has to say. Knowing Kyousuke, she expected it to be something related to her staying out of his business. "I…" Kyousuke says, pausing as Roxanne gets further frustrated. Her frustration began to build, and knowing what Kyousuke might say, she started turning around and prepared to go off.

"You know…"

"I'm sorry." Kyousuke spits out. Roxanne freezes, her eyes widening as she just stands there in total shock at the irony of the words heard. Kyousuke had a serious expression on his face; having his arms crossed as he looked at the ground away from Roxanne. She just stood there, frozen like an ice cube. Her eyes were glued to him as he was about to say more. "I just…" Kyousuke prepares to say. However, his attention is soon turned to the arms surrounding him as he looks down. He saw Roxanne hugging him as tears started to fall. He watched as she held him tightly, not moving a single muscle.

"Don't say anymore." Roxanne says quietly. Kyousuke looks at her surprised just as she rubs the tears off her face. She looks up real quick before putting her face into his chest again. "I have already forgiven you." She says with a trembling voice. She just stands there, holding him as Kyousuke cracks a smile for once towards her; a smile that didn't need to be seen.

As time passed, Gajeel was still at the cliff-side, looking down into the beautiful waters as time passed. Eventually, he became satisfied with the stay and decided to do something else. Wondering how Kyousuke was doing, he turned around and took his steps back to Roxanne's place. His hands were in his pockets as he just looked down for a small fraction of time. He looked up though to see what was ahead of him, only to be met with the sight of the very person he was looking for.

Kyousuke stood a good 10 meters back as they both stared at each other. Neither held a serious expression, for it was more of a lack of an expression (with slight surprise). The wind blew through as their hair was moved by it. They both took steps to each other, walking at the same pace and with the same amount of steps, moving up to about a couple feet away from each other. They stared into each other's eyes. Powerful, vibrant eyes that had so much energy in them. Exquisitely beautiful eyes that were vibrant red and blue with slits for pupils. Kyousuke soon sighed, looking down at Gajeel's side as Gajeel stared at him with a more relaxed expression.

"Well, here we are. It looks like I didn't die after all, isn't that so?" Kyousuke says calmly. He had a weak smile on his face, trying to lighten the mood up but failing miserably.

"Ya think?" Gajeel says calmly. He walked up to Kyousuke and hit him in the arm lightly, Kyousuke looking up at him surprised. "Next time, you're not gonna give me that death crap!" Gajeel says, Kyousuke looking up at him surprised. He was quite calm, not resorting to anger or anything of the sort. "You ain't stupid enough to die like that." Gajeel finalizes. A grin replaced the calm expression on his face as Kyousuke looked at him surprised. He remembered everything that happened between him and Gajeel. It was quite the experience, and it was true that they were alike. Neither of the two had any intention of breaking such a bond.

"Yeah, sure." Kyousuke simply states, giving a weak smile as he felt at ease with himself.

Suddenly, they hear a large army of footsteps as their attention is turned back at the city. It was the two guys with that one cocky dude before, and somehow they managed to get a large group of 50 people in an ambush.

"Hey you! We're gonna make you pay for what you did to the boss!" He says. He sounded just as stupid as ever, and everyone else didn't make the cut either. Gajeel looked at them surprised.

"What's up with these clowns?"

"They're just upset that I killed their idiotic leader." Kyousuke says smirking.

"IDIOTIC?!" The one guy says. "You aren't getting away so easily this time." He says angrily. He didn't sound any better than before. Gajeel was ready to finish them off himself, but Kyousuke stopped him for a moment.

"Gajeel, there's something I have to tell you." Kyousuke says. Gajeel's attention is then turned to Kyousuke as he wonders what he has to say. "Even though the D-Raided's base was destroyed, not every member was there. We'll probably run into them again in the future." Kyousuke informs. Gajeel looks at Kyousuke a bit surprised, only to gain a grin on his face as he chuckles a bit.

"Yeah, and when they come back, they're gonna be eating the dirt." Gajeel says confidently. Kyousuke looked at him in awe, being affected by Gajeel's positive attitude as he couldn't help but give a real smile himself. He then turned his attention to the contingent of 50 idiots as he prepared to go after them.

"For now, let's make these idiots eat dirt then." Kyousuke says, just as both take off after the group. They still had a lot ahead of them, and they all were gonna be ready for it. The _Solar-Genesis _was approaching.

* * *

**Hey guys! This is the final chapter of **_**Fairy Tail: Elemental Bonds**_**. If you've made it this far, I want to congratulate and THANK you for taking your time to read this story! I've put a lot of work into it and I hope that you all enjoyed it. Please leave a review on what you thought of the story! I would appreciate to hear you thoughts (nothing negative please). **

**This story is only the first part. The second half is going to be called **_**Fairy Tail: Solar-Genesis**_** and it is a continuation of this story (since this story is basically novel length lol). Please vote for your favorite OC protagonist of mine by going to my profile page and voting on the poll! I would love to see who your favorite is, and it makes me happy to see what you think :)**

**As I said, please leave a review on what you thought of the story, vote for your favorite OC of mine and hang tight for Solar Genesis! Till then… ;)**

_**Electro DGX**_


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